Sector 50 college bereft of poll

Sandeep Rana

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 31

Call it uninterested authorities of colleges or adhering to the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines that students in some city colleges will not contest or vote in the students’ union elections.

Instance: Government College of Commerce and Business Administration (GCCBA), Sector 50, will have no council polls as nominations of all 28 candidates for four posts — president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary — was found ineligible on the account of attendance shortage by the college authorities.

In MCM DAV College, Sector 36, it is apparently a direct appointment for the posts of the president and the vice-president as the candidature of all girls was not considered. While for the post of the joint secretary, no candidate was found eligible by the college committee. Only for the post of the secretary, five girls will contest. Even at the Government College for Girls, Sector 11, only two candidates each for four posts have been declared eligible.

Showing unity, different student unions got together, pitching for elections. Aviral Parnamia, Chairman, Gandhi Group Student Union, GCCBA, said: “We worked hard whole year for elections and all our efforts are futile now. If there is no student council, who will raise the voice of students?”

Tushar Dhingra, Chairman, Hindustan Student Union, shared: “We faced problems in the first year and want that freshers do not face them. So, we want to be their representatives in a democratic setup. Authorities could have found a way out.”

However, GCCBA principal Dr Manjit Kaur said: “We followed the Lyngdoh guidelines in letter and spirit. According to them, none of the students had 75 per cent attendance. We wanted to give them grace in attendance, but there were several complaints from parties.”

Though no council elections will be held, there will be polling for eight class representative (CR) posts while seven were elected unopposed in the college on Friday.

Dr Nisha Bhargava, Principal, MCM College, said: “It is up to students how many of them want to take part. We had only one candidate each for president and vice-president posts.” However, students said many of them wanted to take part, but they were discouraged by the college authorities. “We do not want you to make unions or raise slogans on the campus, we were told this,” said a group of students.

However, Jyotsna Narang, only president candidate in the MCM, said: “There must have been many candidates, but they have not qualified. I have been seeking support from students. Now, I know that I happen to be the only candidate.”