Awareness should be created among college students with regard to the Anti-Ragging Act, Motor Vehicle Act, Information Technology Act besides a few other Acts in the current juncture, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Tiruchi Range, V. Balakrishnan said.
Presiding over a meeting organised here on Saturday for principals of government and private colleges and heads of polytechnic institutions functioning in Tiruchi Range comprising of Tiruchi, Pudukottai, Karur, Perambalur and Ariyalur districts, the DIG said institutions should put in place measures to offer counselling to those students identified with suicidal tendencies in order to prevent them from resorting to the extreme step.
As police had received several complaints of students leaving their homes following love affairs, educational institutions should organise counselling for students to prevent them from resorting to such steps.
Citing statistics, DIG Balakrishnan said police in the Tiruchi Range had registered 40 boy missing cases and 154 girl missing cases during the last three years.
Calling upon students and institutions to inform police in case they came across information about sale of drugs and tobacco products, the DIG suggested that Police Boys Club be constituted in men's colleges; Police Girls Club in women colleges and Police Boys and Girls Club in co-educational institutions to jointly work with the police in finding solutions for issues such as running away from homes, provide information about sale of tobacco products and arranging counselling for students identified with suicidal tendencies. It was essential to create awareness among college students also on POCSO Act, 2012, Child Marriage Prohibition Act, 2006 and Sexual Harassment in Work Place Act, 2013, he said. Superintendent of Police, Tiruchi Ziaul Haque, Superintendent of Police, Ariyalur V.R. Srinivasan and heads of several higher educational institutions participated in the meeting.
