Pupils find Lyngdoh panel guidelines stiff
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 23
After the announcement of student elections, the JM Lyngdoh Committee guidelines regarding poll process, eligibility of candidates, expenditure, etc have come into force. However, the student leaders claim that there is a need to revise certain guidelines.
Upon the orders of the Supreme Court dated December 2, 2005, the Ministry of Human Resource Development had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of former Chief Election Commissioner JM Lyngdoh to make recommendations on issues relating to student bodies and student union elections. In 2006, the Supreme Court had directed that the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee would be implemented and followed by all institutions of higher education for student elections.
Expenditure limit of ~5,000
According to the guidelines, the maximum permitted expenditure per candidate shall be Rs 5,000. With a view to preventing the inflow of funds from political parties into the student election process, the candidates are barred from utilising funds from any other sources than voluntary contributions from the student body.
However, the student leaders believe that this limit is unreasonable. “It is not possible to limit the expenditure to Rs 5,000. The guidelines were framed in 2006 when this could have been feasible. Everybody knows that no candidate or party follows this,” said a campus student leader.
75% attendance mandatory
According to the committee recommendations, the candidate shall not have a previous criminal record and shall also not have been subject to any disciplinary action by the university authorities. Moreover, the candidate should have attained the minimum percentage of attendance as prescribed by the university or 75 per cent attendance, whichever is higher.
The committee guidelines also state that during the period of elections, no person, who is not a student on the rolls of the college/university, shall be permitted to take part in the election process in any capacity.
Printed material banned
No candidate shall be permitted to make any use of printed posters, printed pamphlets or any other printed material for the purpose of canvassing. Candidates may only utilise hand-made posters for the purpose of canvassing, provided that such posters are procured within the set expenditure limit.
“How many handmade posters can we make? The campus is huge and thousands of students study here. These regulations need to be revised. Also, this rule is hardly implemented on the campus and student leaders have devised a new way to escape the rule. They get stickers printed in a font which looks handmade. Even the university authorities ignore this violation,” said a former campus president.
