Shimla, March 20
Under fire from various quarters, particularly the Supreme Court, over the Aman Kachroo ragging murder, the state government today approved the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Ragging) Ordinance, 2009, providing for stern action against not only those indulging in ragging within or outside the premises of educational institutions but also the authorities managing the day-to-day affairs.

It also decided to set up ‘Aman Kachru memorial trust’ with a corpus of Rs 50 lakh for providing scholarships to meritorious students and undertake activities amongst students in particular and the civic society in general for zero tolerance to ragging.

Ragging has been made a cognisable, non-bailable offence compoundable with the permission of the court. Any student convicted of an offence under the ordinance will be liable to be punished with imprisonment up to three years or fine of up to Rs 50,000 or both.

The offender will be expelled from the institution and will not be eligible for admission in any other institution for a period of three years. The ordinance was approved by the State Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Whenever a complaint of ragging is made in writing to the head of the respective educational institution he will be required to conduct an inquiry within 24 hours and also give intimation to the higher authorities. If prima facie, the complaint is found to be true, it will suspend the accused student, and in case no substance is found the factual position will be intimated to the complainant in writing.

Failure on the part of the institutional disciplinary authority or negligence, or deliberate delay in lodging the First Information Report with the local police will be construed to be an act of culpable negligence attracting imprisonment up to one year or fine up to Rs 10,000 or with both.

The head of the institution or in charge will be liable to be punished for a term which may extend up to two years or a fine extending up to Rs 25,000, or both for failing to enforce the provisions of the ordinance. It will come into force after the Governor promulgates the ordinance.

This is the second time that such an ordinance is being brought to curb ragging. The Shanta Kumar regime had promulgated an anti-ragging ordinance in 1992 but it lapsed as the government was dismissed in the wake of Babri Masjid demolition.

Shimla, March 20
Even as the state Cabinet today approved the ordinance to curb incidents of ragging in educational institutions, two interns at the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) have been suspended for six months and fined for manhandling five first-year students at the boys hostel late last night.

With the dust not having settled over the unfortunate death of Aman Kachroo following ragging at the Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College at Tanda in Kangra, the fresh incident which the authorities are strictly opposed to being termed as ragging has taken place within such a short span.

The incident took place in the Bhawa Raman at about 10 pm last night when first-year student Vivek Kumar was allegedly manhandled and beaten by two interns, Nikhil Verma and Sushant Sharma. Following this the students, including Manoj, Ashwani, Vikas and Diwakar Sharma, got together and lodged a complaint with the warden.

The anti-ragging committee of the IGMC swung into action and brought about a compromise between the interns and the victims, before the matter could even be reported to the police.

The disciplinary action committee of the IGMC at its meeting today suspended the two interns for a period of six months, expelled them from the hostel and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000.

The Principal of IGMC, Dr Surender Kashyap said necessary action had been taken promptly and the complainants were fully satisfied. ‘It is not a case of ragging but of manhandling and suitable action has been taken and there is no need for registering of a police case,’ he said.

The complainant students could not be contacted as it was learnt that they had been directed by the authorities not to speak to anyone so that the matter remained under control as it is being termed as mere manhandling and not ragging.

The college authorities have also requested the police to intensify patrolling in the area around the hostels to ensure that no student is made victim of ragging.

Shimla, March 20
The police today used force to prevent protesting workers of Bishop Cotton School (BCS) from forcibly entering the school premises, resulting into minor injuries to some of the employees.

The incident took place in the morning when 33 retrenched employees of the school along with 50 other workers and CITU members had assembled outside the school to protest against the injustice being meted out to them. The situation went out of control when workers tried to force their way through the gate into the school.

Apprehending possibility of trouble, the police was present in sizeable number and used mild force to prevent them from entering the campus. In the melee that followed some of the workers received minor injuries.

The police arrested about 70 protesters, including women, who were later released in the evening. The agitating workers said management of the school had unnecessary thrown them out.

State secretary of the CPM Rakesh Singha accused the school management of using dictatorial methods and terminating the services of 33 workers, who are totally dependent on the job for their livelihood.

Principal of the BCS Roy Christopher Robinson said the school was functioning normally and the police had to be called in as the workers tried to force their way into the school.

Shimla, March 20
The comparison being drawn by BJP leaders between Aman Kachroo ragging murder and the Mumbai terror attack has boomeranged with the Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kaul Singh demanding resignation of chief minister P.K.Dhumal and health minister Rajiv Bindal on moral grounds.

Raising the demand at a press conference here today he said that the law and order in the peaceful hill state had virtually collapsed during the one year of BJP rule and the ragging murder, followed by equally heinous alleged rape of deaf and dumb girls by teachers, had pushed the Dhumal government on the back foot.

The image of state had been sullied as never before and it only reflected the morass into which the state was slipping because of “indifferent governance”.

Finding themselves in no position to defend the government the BJP leaders were, without any rhyme and reason, trying to draw parallels of the ragging murder with Mumbai terror attack but they conveniently ignored the fact that the union home minister and the chief minister of Maharashtra had resigned assuming moral responsibility for the incident.

By the same yardstick it was the turn of Dhumal and Bindal to quit on moral grounds as a complaint had been lodged by the victim and the matter was brought to the notice of the health minister.

He said it was quite obvious that the government had miserably failed to enforce the directions of the Supreme Court for checking ragging and it was for this reason that it had been served with a contempt notice on the issue. 

Regarding the rape case he said that the deaf and dumb girls would have been saved the ordeal had the present government followed the policy of regular monitoring of the functioning, including auditing of accounts of the non-government organisations.

The crime graph had been moving northwards and even the deities , the object of people’s faith, were not safe under the present regime as evident from he number of idol thefts that were taking place.

He lambasted Dhumal for his double talk on mega projects granted by the UPA reime to the state. All through he had been trying to take credit for these projects but now when polls were around he was alleging discrimination by the Centre and making it an issue.

Dharamsala, March 20
Adding another dimension to obscene SMS case, US-based NRI woman has also lodged a complaint against the accused professor of Palampur Agriculture University. The woman who has identified herself as Hardeep Bains has alleged in a mail message that she was disclosing the information after reading a report regarding the case in online edition of The Tribune.

She has also forwarded a copy of her complaint against the accused professor to SP Kangra, DGP, Himachal and Chairman of the National Women’s Commission.

The SP, Kangra, Atul Fulzele when contacted by The Tribune admitted that the police had received the complaint of Bains against the professor Atul who is accused in the case. The woman has also confirmed the allegations in a telephonic conversation.

In the mail message to various said authorities, a copy of which was also forwarded to The Tribune Hardeep has alleged that she used to study with this professor back in early 1980s in Panjab University, Chandigarh. His real name is Rakesh Verma and he was earlier ousted from Kurukshetra University on similar charges. He allegedly then changed his name to Atul and got employed in Palampur Agriculture University

Atul Verma who is the head of the department at the university used to study with us. I read an article in The Tribune about SMS case. She has alleged that as a student also he used to harass girls.

Hardeep has alleged that she was forced to write against the accused professor as she felt that it was her moral responsibility. As students in early eighties, due to social stigma we were afraid to complaint, however, it is unfortunate that the professor is still continuing with his antics, she has alleged.

After the compliant the police is also now investigating if the accused professor feigned identity to take job at the university.

VC Tej Pratap or Atul, the accused professor, were not available for comments despite repeated efforts to contact them on phone.

The police and VC had also got severe reprimand from the court just a few days ago for alleged complacency in the case. The court took suo motu notice of a news published in The Tribune regarding the incident and directly the police to register the case. 

Solan, March 20
Residents of Chalan village here today staged a protest against the alleged dumping of muck in their area by the JP cement plant authorities.

The villagers who had got work at the project site stopped working last evening. They gathered in large numbers this morning and raised slogans against the plant management. They said, “It was a sorry state of affairs that the plant management continued to dump debris down the hill. It was destroying their fertile land and posing danger to several nearby houses.”

Instead of trying to clear the debris, the plant management was adopting an aggressive posture and the villagers were being intimidated, they alleged. Their natural sources of water had been buried under the debris, several houses were on the verge of being wiped out completely and check dams had suffered immense damage, but the company had failed to address these issues, they said.

DC Amandeep Garg said the SDM, Arki, and the DSP, Darlaghat, had been sent there to defuse the situation. As per the preliminary report, the company officials had alleged that the villagers had intimidated their labourers and they had to get an FIR registered against them.

On the other hand, the villagers alleged the company had failed to stop dumping of debris and it posed a threat to their village.

Officials also pointed out that some discontent was also visible on the issue of compensation awarded to the villagers following acquisition of their land about four years ago. The villagers were pressing for a re-negotiation of the compensation award.

Talks between the company and administration was underway till the filing of the report while the work at the site had been completely halted.

Bilaspur, March 20
District Magistrate-cum-Deputy Commissioner JS Rana here has enforced prohibitory orders banning carrying and keeping of all types of weapons and arms and ammunitions in the Municipal areas and also in the Luhnu Ground of Bilaspur town till March 23.

A notification issued here last evening said the order had been passed under Section 144 of the IPC.

This has been necessitated to keep peace and order and public safety in ongoing state-level Nalwadi fair. It has come into force immediately, the notification said.

In another notification, a similar order has also been passed by the District Magistrate for the entire Shah Talai police station areas for the same reasons as another fair is going on there at the Talai pilgrim centre. The order would remain in force till April 14 when this month-long fair would end.