Nine Lives Lost In 70 Ragging Incidents: House Told

New Delhi, Nov 26 (UNI) As many as 70 incidents of ragging-- resulting in nine suicides and three serious injury cases-- were reported by print media during 2007-08, Parliament was told today.

Such data is not kept by the government, but an expert group has kept track of reports, Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandareswari said in a written reply.

''Information on incidents of ragging is not centrally maintained,'' Purandareswari said replying to Independent Rajya Sabha Member Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Karnataka.

But she said a Committee for monitoring the recommendations of the Raghavan Committee on steps to prevent ragging-- appointed by the Supreme Court-- came across 70 cases of ragging ''reported in the print media'' during 2007-08.

''Ragging is reported to be the cause of nine cases of suicide and three cases of serious injuries among these cases,'' the HRD MoS said.

She said the States and regulatory-- All India Council for Technical Education, University Grants Commission, Medical Council of India-- authorities' attention was drawn to the Ragging Prevention Committee's recommendations.

She said the HRD Ministry carried out a media campaign through newspapers.

She said such incidents could attract Indian Penal Code 1860 provisions and the Apex court had mandated filing First Information Reports with police if victims were not satisfied with action taken by institution authorities.

UNI