Bhubaneswar: The non-mentioning about conduct of students’ union election in the current year’s academic calendar has created a row in the State as student leaders from different political outfits raised their voices against such a move of the State Government.
The Higher Education Department has come up with a common academic calendar for the academic session 2023-24 and shared it to the Vice-Chancellors of all public universities and principals of all degree colleges in the State. The Department has directed the VCs and Principals to strictly implement the common academic calendar.
As per the academic calendar, there will be a minimum of 180 teaching days and 72 holidays excluding Sundays. Moreover, the summer vacation will start from May 5, 2024 and continue till June 19, 2024, tentatively.
However, in its academic calendar, the department has not mentioned about schedule to conduct the Students’ Union election, against which student leaders from different outfits raised voices and demanded the government to announce dates for conducting the campus polls.
On September 5, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, had staged demonstrations in front of various degree colleges and state public universities across the state, including the capital city, demanding Students’ Union elections.
Today the NSUI activists here burn the letter of the Higher Education Department in protest of the move. The Student Congress has also warned that it would protest in all the colleges if the Student’s Union election is stopped.
“In an undemocratic way, the Government has stopped conducting the union polls since 2018. If the college union polls are held, BJD will be rooted out from the state. So, in fear of defeat, the Naveen Patnaik Government is not conducting the campus polls,” said Yashir Nawaz, State President of NSUI.
Arijit Patnaik, State Secretary, AVBP said the Government has killed the leadership quality of the students. There are about 20 lakh youth voters in college campuses. So, the government fears that they will go against it, he alleged.
“We strongly demand conduct of the college polls. Otherwise, ABVP will hit the streets,” warned Shri Patnaik.
State President of All India Students’ Federation (AISF) Sanghamitra Jena said the Government wants to cancel the Students’ Union polls to stop building new leaders because the ruling BJD has now become a party of bureaucrats.
On the other hand, President of Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (the student wing of ruling BJD) Debi Ranjan Tripathy said the students are violating the norms set by the Lyngdoh Commission. That’s why the college polls are put on hold.
“In this year’s academic calendar, there is no proposal to conduct the campus polls. If the students’ union election will not be conducted, the students can put furth their demands and issues at administrative level,” Shri Tripathy said.
The State Government has not been holding the college elections since 2018 showing various reasons including violence in campuses, Covid-19 pandemic, etc.