3 May : President Pratibha Patil will write to all Governors, who are also the Chancellors of their respective state universities, asking them to allow a group of activists to sensitise students about ragging even as the Centre plans to bring in a legislation to tackle the problem.
The activists of "Aman Movement", led by Rajendra Kachru, father of Aman Kachru who died in ragging incident, met the President and requested her to ask the chancellors to allow them to make presentations in campuses against ragging.
"The request was instantly accepted by the President who will now write to the Governors asking them to give permission to the group to create awareness against the ragging," a Rashtrapati Bhavan official told a news agency.
Meanwhile, the government is also actively considering framing a special central legislation to effectively curb ragging menace and this was informed to the President by HRD Minister Arjun Singh, during his meeting with her on Friday.
Singh also told the President that he will convene an urgent meeting of all the regulatory bodies under the ministry to take up the issue to ensure that preventive measures were taken.
President had recently expressed grave concern over the rising incidents of ragging in certain institutions of higher education across the country and said that appropriate legislation could be enacted to tackle the menace.
Universities and colleges are centres of learning and for developing mutual respect, friendship and understanding, she said, adding their sanctity cannot be vitiated year after year at the start of an academic season by those who indulge in mindless ragging.
Patil’s reaction came in the wake of death of Aman Kachru due to ragging in Himachal Pradesh in March this year.
Incidents of ragging were also reported from states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu last month.
Patil had urged students, especially senior students in institutes of higher learning to be more responsible in their dealings with their juniors.
Rajender had earlier met UGC Chairman Prof Sukhadeo Thorat and had suggested starting a national call centre for providing assistance to students who face ragging.
Educational Consultancy India Limited (ECIL), a government undertaking, is entrusted with the task of starting such a call centre to which students can make call at the time of crisis.
Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission has prepared a regulation, which has been adopted by 17 other councils.
It stipulates that students can be expelled from an institute and debarred from taking admission to any other institute after found guilty of the offence.