Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College: Students slapped Rs 25,000 fine each for ragging

Bhagalpur: 33 second-year students of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College faced stringent action at the hands of the college authorities, who imposed a Rs. 25,000 fine on them for ragging the first year batch. The younger batch had in a November 8 written complaint to the College Principal, complained of seniors having ragged them for the past 3 months.It was initially denied by the 2^nd year batch and then admitted to when video clippings of their harassing acts were shown to them. These video clips had surfaced on the social media.

The Anti Ragging Committee was assigned the task of verifying the complaint lodged by the students, by the college authorities.The committee, comprising of Dr S N Tiwary (chairperson), Dr Sandip Lal, Dr Ravikant Mishra, Dr Ashok Bhagat, and Dr Uma Shanker Singh, identified the "culprits", and issued show-cause notices to them.

Principal, Dr. Arjun Singh of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College on his part imposed a fine totaling Rs. 8.25 lakh on 33 students of the 2016 batch, for troubling the 2017 batch admitted to the college, recently. Each of the 2^nd years is to pay Rs. 25,000 as a penalty for the acts committed.

"The decision to impose the fine was taken at a meeting on Saturday according to the guidelines of the All India Council of Technical Education and directives of the Supreme Court against ragging incidents in institutions," Dr Singh told journalists.

The investigating committee which met the Ist year students on Nov 8 and the 2^nd year batch on Nov 10 had to show the seniors video clips for them to admit to their acts. The committee members also spoke to the bus driver and the conductor, who drove the juniors to the medical college hostel at the behest of the seniors. On completion of the investigation, a report confirming the incident was submitted to Mr. Singh. The state government and Medical Council of India were also made aware of the developments.

Students welcoming the decision taken by the college administration told The Telegraph, "We hope the action taken against the senior students will curb ragging incidents not only on this campus but also for other educational institutions."