By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 7 Nov: Various student organisations have expressed anguish over the delay in holding students’ union election in the state and have threatened a full time agitation if the elections are not held soon. At the same time, the students of DAV PG College in the capital, Dehradun, are already holding a protest in this regard. They have threatened a hunger strike if the elections are not declared soon.
Interestingly, while the Higher Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat has claimed that the call for the elections is to be taken by the colleges and the universities concerned and that the government has nothing to do with it, the college and university administrations have claimed that it is not in their hand to hold elections without the orders of the government.
The students of DAV PG College, Dehradun, are sitting on hunger strike demanding the conduct of elections. The students are demanding that the government fix the date of holding the student union elections as soon as possible. The student leaders who are agitating say that till the time the government or the college administration announces the date for the elections, the agitation will continue. However, they have also alleged that till now no responsible officer has taken cognisance of their agitation.
In 119 colleges and five state universities of the state, student union elections were not been held for the last two years mainly on the ground of Covid, even as the tussle between the government and the department continues over whether elections are to be held this year or not. Students claim that with panchayat elections and earlier assembly elections having been already held, there is no sound reason to withhold the elections on ground of Covid.
As per the rules and the tradition, the student union elections should have been held in September and October. The universities say they have no administrative control over state colleges.
The students’ elections were last held in October 2019, on a single day. It now remains to be seen who takes the call to declare the elections or the attempt is made to avoid the elections this year too.
