Panjab University mulls 2 dates for student poll
Deepankar Sharda
Chandigarh, September 25
The Panjab University authorities are mulling over proposing two dates to the UT Administration and the Chandigarh Police for conducting the Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) elections, claimed sources.
The sources confirmed that the university authorities are planning to conduct the elections on October 7 or October 21. However, no final decision has been taken yet. These two dates had been chosen considering the number of holidays before and after these days.
“The university will be closed on October 1 and October 2. It will open for two days – October 3 and 4. The PU will again be closed on October 5 and 6,” said a highly placed official.
An official said: “October 7 is a working day, while the university will again be closed October 8, 9 and 11. The youth festival is scheduled in the third week of October and the following week also has a long weekend. The authorities are also considering October 21 for conducting the elections. The university will again be closed from October 22 to 25. The authorities usually consider a long gap after the election results to avoid any untoward incident. So, October 7 or October 21 are suiting them.”
Though police officials refused to comment on receiving any kind of proposed dates by the PU authorities, they will also be considering the force needed to manage security around Diwali.
“See, considering a long weekend is fine, but we have to think on other lines too. Diwali is on October 24 and the police force is surely needed to keep a vigil on the security in and around the city. Though there is enough force to handle any situation, things that can be planned and worked on should be moulded accordingly,” said a police official.
“We are yet to take a decision on the election date. However, we are most likely to hold a meeting with other authorities and take a green signal from them before announcing anything,” said a senior functionary of the PU.
Owing to the Covid pandemic, the PUCSC elections were not held for two years now. As per the 2019 election data, a total of 16,138 students were enrolled and 167 polling booths were set up for smooth voting. As many as 128 department representatives were elected. The University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) had the highest number of voter students (2,638), followed by University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS) at 1,475 students.
