Title - Mangalore: Menace of Ragging Haunts Students in Trains

Mangalore : Of late, ragging has become a worrying concern in the Chervattoor-Mangalore and Mangalore-Kannur trains.The menace has instilled a sense of fear in passengers, especially among students coming to Mangalore from Chervattoor and Kannur.Cases of ragging have been on the increase day by day especially in the Chervattoor-Mangalore train in the morning and Mangalore-Kannur in the evening hours. In a majority of cases, the victims have been freshers in colleges.In one incident reported sometime ago,  a student in the Chervattoor-Mangalore passenger train was ragged by the some senior students.Ibrahim Asari (17) of Uliyathadka, National Nagara, a first year BCom student of a private college in Ullal was ragged by seniors, and had to be admitted to a hospital in Kasargod.The students also tried to rag Asari's companion Shanidh. To escape from them, the student jumped out off the train, sources said.While travelling in the train, if the freshers fail to follow the demands of the senior students, they are said to be punished mentally and physically.In addition, apart from ragging their juniors, the seniors also reportedly captured their video clippings and photos undergoing punishments and uploaded them in the popular websites like YouTube and Facebook.As large number of students travel by these two trains, the incident of ragging are higher too. Such cases were reportedly last year also. Some of the students have thus opted to travel by  bus even though the fares are high.

Special team set to check ragging

The railway officials have set up a special team to inspect cases of ragging.

A team of five led by DYSP Radhakrishnan of Palakkad has been set up to curb the menace.

The team will keep an eye mainly on these two trains and those who are caught will be punished severely, said an official source.