College staff punished for negligence

In the month of March, a BA Part One student was gang-raped in Government Ripudaman College, Nabha. In this matter, yesterday the Principal Secretary of the Higher Education Department dismissed two professors and suspended a librarian and an assistant professor. Orders were issued to immediately remove the principal from the post.

Although the police have arrested the accused of gang rape, this unfortunate incident in the college has raised many question marks on the current education system. A three-member committee was formed to investigate the incident, after whose report the above action was taken for negligence.

At that time the principal had completely denied any such incident in the college. Student organization Punjab Students Union had protested against this tragic incident in the college and demanded exemplary action against the culprits. There has been a long standing lament over the lack of concrete efforts to stop incidents of rape against women in the entire country including Punjab. Of course, the perpetrators of rape are punished as per the law, but despite this, there is always laxity in fixing responsibility and accountability for it.

The report of the committee formed to investigate the incident at Nabha College revealed the negligence of the college management, after which the Principal Secretary took concrete action, which will set an example. Although the college management does not seem to have any role in this, lax attitude, administrative shortcomings and negligence are the reasons for such incidents. Therefore, taking concrete action in such cases like the Higher Education Department is the need of the hour because this will fix responsibility and accountability in the management and develop the feeling of doing one’s work with complete honesty and promptness.

Here, the victim student and the student organization should also be praised that they did not give up in this matter. They not only complained about the incident to the police, but also expressed their protest through social and collective participation to create pressure for action and forced higher officials to take action. In this light, the fight for justice fought after the gang rape and murder of Kiranjeet Kaur in Mahal Kalan in the 90s became an example for the whole world. In such a situation, it becomes necessary that to prevent such incidents, not only social awareness should be increased, but the reasons behind gender equality should also be considered.