Finally, govt plans student union polls

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 15

The Haryana Government has decided to evolve a foolproof and modernistic system of free, fair and peaceful elections to student councils and pilot it in a few campuses in the next semester of the current academic session.

Based on the learning from these pilots, a pan-Haryana electoral system that is driven by IT would be rolled out in all colleges and universities within first eight to 10 weeks of the next academic session as per the Lyngdoh Committee Report.

This was stated by Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma after an interaction with the committee of vice-chancellors set up by the government to implement poll promise.

The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, (Higher Education), Jyoti Arora and Director General, Vijay Singh Dahiya, members of the four-member committee constituted for conducting students’ union elections, including committee chairman and Vice-Chancellor, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Tankeshwar Kumar.

Meanwhile, Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) announced indefinite fast in Hisar from January after the end of semester examinations.

“From today’s meeting, we are convinced that the state government is not interested in holding student union elections and is merely trying to buy time. Even the report of the committee was not presented in the meeting. We have decided to launch indefinite fast and strike at Guru Jambeshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar,” said national president Digvijay Chautala.

While representatives of the INSO and NSUI attended the meeting, those of the SFI and surprisingly of the BJP’s own student wing ABVP were conspicuous by their absence.

Notably, no student union elections have been held in the state after 1996 when these were stopped by then Chief Minister Bansi Lal.