Dissatisfied with the report submitted by Jadavpur University on the death of a fresher on August 10, the West Bengal Child Rights Commission (WBCRC) has sent a fresh notice to the university seeking clarification on the action taken by the authorities to prevent ragging on the campus.
The first year student of Bengali honours died on August 10 after falling from the balcony of a students’ hostel. It is suspected that he became a victim of ragging.
This is the third notice sent by the commission to the university authorities. Although the JU authorities had replied to the previous two notices, the commission was not satisfied with the reply.
Sources in the WBCRC said that from the previous replies sent by the JU authorities, it is clear that the recommendations of the University Grants Commission (UGC) for prevention of ragging within educational institutions were not strictly adhered to.
Meanwhile, a lower court in Kolkata on Saturday extended the police custody for two second year students of JU — Deepsekhar Dutta and Manotosh Ghosh — till August 30. Dutta, a student of economics, and Ghosh, a student of international relations, were arrested on August 13 for their alleged role behind the ‘mishap’.
In another development, the interim Vice Chancellor of JU, Buddhadeb Sau, informed mediapersons on Saturday that a team from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be visiting the university next week to suggest ways to use technology to prevent the menace of ragging within the campus.
The initiative to involve ISRO was taken by West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, who by virtue of his chair is also the Chancellor of JU. The Governor also had a telephonic conversation with top ISRO officials in this matter.
Sau also assured that the work for installation of CCTV cameras within the campus will commence soon.
Besides the main gate and the hostel gates, there are also plans to install CCTV cameras at other points within the campus, he said.
