Lucknow, Oct 13 : The Uttar Pradesh cabinet Tuesday decided to make ragging a cognizable offence, an official spokesman said.

The new law would be named 'Ragging in Educational Institutions Ordinance, 2009'. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government had initiated the move shortly after it assumed office in May
2007. There was, however, no progress so far.

"The state government also took note of the Supreme Court's oft-repeated stress on the need for putting an end to ragging in educational institutions," said the spokesman.

What prompted Chief Minister Mayawati to call for a strong law were a spate of suicides and deaths after ragging in a couple of private engineering colleges around this state capital in the recent past.

The new law would be applicable to all higher education institutes, including medical and engineering colleges across the state. (IANS)