Trouble brewing over delay in student body poll

Trouble brewing over delay in student body poll
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 7
As the new academic session is about to begin, the demand for Jammu University Campus Students’ Council elections has started getting louder. A number of student unions have already adopted agitational methods to get their long-pending demand fulfilled.

The university authorities had last year announced that the students’ council poll would be held from next year, but so far nothing has been decided, which has agitated the students.

With the fate of the elections hanging in the balance, the intelligence agencies have reported that students can disrupt the peaceful atmosphere of the university if the authorities failed to announce the poll schedule on time.

“The elections have become a necessity as the authorities have been adopting anti-student policies. No one is ready to listen the plight of students as everyone is busy in corrupt practices. The money of students is being spent on unnecessary things, especially on the renovation of offices. This can be checked only by elected representatives of the university who can raise their voice at all platforms. So, we demand that the authorities should conduct elections from this year,” said Vikas Sharma, state president, NSF.

He further said if the authorities failed to announce the poll schedule in the first week of the new academic session, they would adopt various methods to get their demand fulfilled.

Similarly, the representatives of other students’ unions and research scholars said when neighbouring states could conduct the students’ council poll, then why the University of Jammu authorities were not ready to follow them.

However, the university authorities claimed that the matter was pending for the approval of vice-chancellor Varun Sahni who is the supreme authority to decide whether the elections would be conducted or not.

A senior official of the university said they were ready to conduct the elections, but the students would have to follow the norms decided by the Lyngdoh Committee for the elections. The Supreme Court had made it mandatory for all universities and those found guilty were liable to be penalised, he added.

Courtesy: The Tribune