Boarders staying illegally in hostels to be asked to leave for preventing ragging: Assam CM

GUWAHATI: The Assam government will soon launch a drive to find out all former students staying illegally in college and university hostels and ask them to leave in order to prevent ragging, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday.

Reacting to the recent cases of ragging in some premier educational institutes of the state, Sarma said that the government will act tough to stop ragging.

"We will have to take some initiatives to stop the menace of ragging in universities and other academic institutes. The first is to bid farewell to all the former students," he said. The government will soon launch a drive so that no former student can stay at the hostels of colleges and universities, Sarma said.

"If we can do that, I believe 60 per cent of ragging cases will stop. The government will take a big initiative on this front," he told reporters here. If college and university administrations and the police work together, ragging incidents will be controlled, the chief minister asserted.

"For some time, there was no incident of ragging. We all thought that it was finished and probably got a little relaxed. That's why it increased to some extent. We will now strongly control ragging in Assam," he added.

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In the Dibrugarh University incident, which took place on November 26, a student of M.Com first-semester was tortured brutally following which he jumped from the second floor of the hostel to save himself from ragging. The student, who was admitted at the ICU, had suffered a vertebral fracture leading to serious nerve injury causing weakness in one leg. He also suffered a fracture in his hand.

Four students of the university were rusticated for three years, while 18 others were expelled. Police have already arrested five senior students and search is on to nab the other accused people. In another incident, two doctors studying post-graduation courses at Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh were suspended from attending classes for six months and expelled from the hostel for allegedly indulging in ragging.