MP Chief Secretary reviews anti-ragging measures

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government has reviewed measures to curb ragging at educational institutions in the state and directed the college authorities to strictly tackle the menace, official sources said Friday.

State Chief Secretary R Parasuram, during a high-level meeting here yesterday, directed a blanket ban on physical and mental torture at colleges and said that educational institutions` negligence on ragging will not be tolerated, an official release said here. Describing the suicide by a girl student of a pharmacy college here as "unfortunate", Parasuram asked the college principals and faculty members to ensure stringent measures against the persons involved in ragging. Anita Sharma (18), pursuing her B-Pharma second year course from the RKDF College, hanged herself on August 7 at her residence in Jeevan Vihar Society here, police said. A note, purportedly written by Anita, blamed her four seniors and the faculty member for the suicide, they said. Meanwhile, the chief secretary also asked the officials concerned to apprise the government colleges and private educational institutions of the directives of Supreme Court and state government regarding ragging. Even a single ragging incident must be taken seriously and efforts should be undertaken to prevent recurrence, he said. PTI