HYDERABAD: With a view to preventing ragging, the Telangana government is planning to ban long periods of freshers’ parties held in engineering and other colleges, and would insist that no such party be held after the first month of an academic year.
Top officials noted that freshers’ parties in engineering colleges were stretching even beyond the first three months, by which time first-year students are largely subjected to ragging in different forms.
Students are liable to be suspended if such events are held after the first month, from the next academic year onwards.
Governments have been trying to address the menace of ragging in educational institutions. TS government officials say that a one-month deadline would be imposed.
Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) chairman Prof T Papi Reddy said, “These freshers’ parties are being stretched to more than three months. It should be held within one month. We will bring that rule from the next academic year. Universities are free to conduct such events within the first month. If anyone else does such things after the deadline, they can be suspended.”
Nearly a decade ago, the Supreme Court-appointed RK Raghavan committee had recommended that freshers’ party should not be prolonged.
“We recommend that in every institution, the freshers’ day or welcome party' shall be concluded within the first two weeks of the beginning of the academic session,” the Raghavan committee had recommended.
Both AP and TS have in the past been rocked by suicides due to ragging. A first-year student in Acharya Nagarjuna University in Guntur committed suicide in July after being mentally tortured by seniors.
An engineering student from Adilabad committed suicide in September this year after a similar situation. Though reported cases are few, incidence of ragging is extremely high in institutions.
