Government on Friday said it would follow a zero-tolerance policy towards ragging in institutions of higher education and tough regulations under the law have been put in place to deal with the menace.

"The policy of the government shall be zero tolerance for anti-social activities," HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told the Rajya Sabha replying to a short duration discussion on the increasing incidents of ragging in the country.

Responding to some members' demand for a national law, he said that the UGC regulations have the backing of law which will have to be implemented by the universities and colleges.

Sibal said the stringent measures which could be enforced include rustication of a student, withholding of scholarship, derecognition of institution, debarring a student from appearing in any test and stopping of grant to the institution.

He said previously, the mindset was glossing over the issue and only trying to persuade children not to do ragging.

"That mindset has changed" and now the focus is on taking strict measures to prevent such incidents, he said.

The HRD Ministry has written to the Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Indian Nursing Council and the All India Council of Technical Education to adopt the UGC regulations against ragging, he said.

"I am sure all these regulations will be adopted and this menace will be put to an end," he said.

Referring to occurrence of ragging incidents in schools, Sibal said that regulations similar to UGC rules should be enacted for school system. "We will be proceeding in this direction", he said.

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