Mass bunking: Medical college cracks whip on students

Jodhpur: Cracking the whip on mass bunking by students, authorities at SN Medical College here have taken strict action against 250 of them in the first-year MBBS programme who went on Diwali leave a week before it officially began.

Stating that what the students had done amounted not only to gross disrespect of the college administration but also of the sanctity and ethos of the medical profession, the authorities have suspended their classes and asked them to bring their parents with an affidavit tendering apology and assuring that they would not repeat such an action in future.

Academic in-charge (UG) Afzal Hakim said that the parents of 22 students appeared before the principal today with the affidavit.

"But, surprisingly, instead of admitting to the fault of their wards, they pleaded with us to apologise them terming the fault a petty one," said Hakim.

He said that mass bunking had become routine at the college and was a phenomenon which has grown in the past four years.

"Previously, students were let off with just a warning. But, this time, we decided to end this and, therefore, suspended the classes until the students came accompanied by their parents and submitted the affidavit," he said.

He said that whereas the Diwali vacations were scheduled to begin from November 8, as many as 250 students of the 2015 MBBS batch had gone on leave from October 31 without informing the college administration.

He added that the college administration had got whiff of the plan by these students to take off before the official beginning of the Diwali break and had warned them against taking any such step.

"Not only this, but e-mails by us sent on November 2 to these students asking them to join classes immediately went unheeded. That was gross disrespect of not only our orders but also the sanctity of the profession," said college principal AL Bhat.

With the affidavit submitted by the parents, students will be responsible for their short-attendance and the administration will be authorised to take any disciplinarian action against them, he said.