Mangalore: Caught with cell on campus? Pay up Rs 10,000

Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, 10 March 2011: Using a cellphone while driving attracts a fine of Rs 300. But in a medical college campus here, it’s Rs 10,000, plus confiscation of the cellphone and a week’s suspension from class. It does not matter whether the cellphone is used in the classroom or campus.

 

There are other violations, too, which attract hefty fines ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 at a Medical College here. Miss an hour’s class and it’s Rs 500; and Rs 1,000 for joining late after holidays or wearing jeans, sporting stubble or if the first button of the shirt is open.

 

The cellphone rule applies from 8.30am to 4.30pm. There are students who have been fined at 8.15am and on non-working days too. And if a student is late to class by a minute, the fine is Rs 5,000. The student can attend the class only after paying the fine at the bank branch, indicating it is a penal amount. Even post graduate students are not spared.

 

 

Some colleges confiscate the cellphone if used in the classroom / college building (not campus), but return it at the end of the semester after a fine of Rs 1,000. In engineering colleges students have to deposit the cellphones in the locker and attend classes.

 

Says a student of a Engineering College:"It all depends upon the mood of the lecturer. You are either let off with a warning or hauled up before the student welfare officer. Parents of repeat offenders get a notice to meet the principal."

 

An administrator of the medical college says hefty fines are just a deterrent and they have not penalized anybody till date. "After this rule, we find students are more disciplined," the administrator added.

 

However, a parent feels it is very unfair to fine students such hefty amounts. "Disciplining should be done in a humane and justifiable way," he adds.

 

- Times of India