PU poll announcement today, depts asked for gender-wise student data

The varsity authorities will announce the Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) election schedule on Friday (August 22). As

per sources, the code of conduct will come into force with the official announcement. Also, a detailed plan will be announced covering the police security, the full election timeline and schedule for the counting of votes.

Notably, instead of asking departments to submit total strength of student voters, authorities this year have asked for segregated data of male, female or transgender students in the run-up for the elections.

The step is aimed to ensure the university has a complete data of the students to take into consideration foe policy-making. It will also help the university to have data of voters’ turnout and for reservation of seats, if needed, in the next elections.

“The data will help us take futurist decisions. It will also help us have our student ratio and the exact voter information for the elections,” said Amit Chauhan, Dean Student Welfare (DSW) PU.

The departments have been asked to submit the data by August 23, and the same will be updated in the upcoming the elections. While the admissions are still underway (most likely till August 31), the exact number of voters is likely to be released by next week.

However, the authorities maintained that the total number of voters will remain somewhere between 15,900 to 16,200.

When asked if some separate voting booths for any of the three categories will be set up, the DSW added, “As per the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines, the university cannot have such provisions as technically, this is a student election, totally separate from the parliamentary elections.”

Another category will keep tabs of foreign national and NRI students. “We have more than 250 students in both foreign nationals and NRI category, who will be eligible to vote,” said Kewal Krishan, Dean, International Students.

“The segregation will help all stakeholders including, participating political groups to have data and manage the poll. Usually, the main focus remains on the hostellers, and this will widen the scope for all parties to approach their voters,” added Rajinder Deswal, a local student.

UIET, Legal Studies the ‘kingmaker’

Meanwhile, the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) will play “kingmaker” in the polls along with Legal Studies—as they combined have a majority of vote share.

As per the 2024 admission record, the UIET had 2,518 registered voters, the University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS) recorded 1,950 students and the Department of Law had 1,100 student voters.

PUTA election

Meanwhile, the Panjab University Teachers’ Association (PUTA) will organise their annual elections on September 2. As many as three candidates—Amarjit Singh Naura, Ashok Kumar and Parveen Goyal— will be vying for the top post of president.