National univ film making contest to curb ragging
LUCKNOW : To spread awareness about the dangerous effect of ragging on students, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is launching a national university film making competition for students and faculty .
The entries can be from universities’ departments and affiliated colleges. The universities, through an internal selection procedure, will select the three best entries to be sent to the UGC. The films may be documentary/ fiction films of about 5-10 minutes.
The UGC will constitute an expert committee to select three best films from the entries and give an award of Rs 5 lakh, Rs.3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively for the first, second and third best film, reads the letter by Pankaj Mittal, additional secretary, UGC.
The selected films would be the property of UGC and would be uploaded on UGC website while giving credit to the filmmaker. The UGC has asked vice chancellors to send entries from their university in a pen drive/ DVD to UGC, latest by November 30, 2017. The UGC is hopeful that such a creative exercise will help in curbing ragging on campuses. To prohibit, prevent and eliminate the scourge of ragging, all institutions are required to take necessary steps for its implementation, including a monitoring mechanism as per provisions and ensure its strict compliance, reads the UGC letter.
the Supreme Court has banned ragging and the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has strictly prohibited it on campus. Yet ragging is regular in educational institutions of Uttar Pradesh.
According to the National Anti-Ragging Helpline (1800-18055-22) data, between June 2009 and year 2017, UP registered 727 complaints of ragging, which is the highest in the country followed by West Bengal (491 cases).
This August , a number of new entrants in Hewett Polytechnic alleged their seniors had told them to come to the campus with close cropped hair or tonsured heads. They alleged the seniors’ diktat was part of a ‘discipline’ (read ragging ) failing which new entrants were targeted and attacked in the hostel at night.