SPA rethinks anti-ragging measures following incident
Hit by a case of ragging, the premiere School of Planning and Architecture is contemplating a series of measures, including segregating freshers from senior students in hostels, in a bid to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
A rethink on preventive measures came after a first-year student was ragged and left him
with injuries for which he needed a surgery. A case was also registered with police.
The incident happened in the boys hostel which is shared by first year and second year students.
SPA, which conducted an internal inquiry into the incident that happened in September last year, is considering some new measures to make sure such incidents are not repeated.
"We have not finalised any (new measures) as yet but there are a number of things that are being discussed. One of them is the possibility of segregating first year bachelor students and the rest of the students," Prof Chetan Vaidya, Director of SPA, told PTI.
He said the institute, which takes anti-ragging measures very seriously, had witnessed very few such cases in the past and the recent case was unfortunate.
The college hostel has a committee comprising faculty members who are responsible for keeping a vigil and punish the students breaching discipline but the body seemed to have been caught unawares by the episode.
"The student (victim) did not contact anybody before leaving Delhi. We later received a fax from his father which is when we went through the details of the matter," he said.
The father of the student, who hails from Ranchi, had complained to the SPA Dean which was later forwarded to police.
According to the complaint filed by the father, the victim had informed him that he was ragged by his seniors on the roof-top of their hostel.
Though an internal inquiry was conducted the FIR filed by the institute does not name any student responsible and officials say the complaint, which became the basis of their inquiry, did not mention names.
The institute has a campus at ITO as well where girl students' hostel is situated and among the options being discussed by the authorities is the possibility of moving freshers to that campus.
The institute, which hopes to put in place new measures before the fresh session starts in July, is also discussing installing CCTVs to monitor activities as well as appointing Professors as wardens.
