No Students’ Union Election In Odisha This Year Too
Odisha's colleges and universities are unlikely to hold annual student union elections during the current academic year.
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Bhubaneswar: Odisha's colleges and universities are unlikely to hold annual student union elections during the current academic year.
The Common Academic Calendar for the academic session 2023-24, released on Tuesday by the Odisha government's Higher Education Department, makes no mention of the much-anticipated students' union poll.
Since 2018, there have been no campus elections in the state. College elections had previously been interrupted on an irregular basis.
On September 5, the National Students' Union of India (NSUI), the Congress' student wing, organized demonstrations in front of several degree colleges and state public universities around the state, including the capital city, demanding elections for the students' Union.
"Students' democratic rights are being denied." "Student representatives are needed to address various issues in higher education institutions, such as a shortage of teaching and non-teaching staffers," stated Yashir Nawaz, state president of NSUI.
Students from several higher education institutions and their connected organizations encouraged the state government and institution officials to hold student union elections this year in July. Members of the ABVP have claimed that the ruling government's decision to halt student elections in the state in order to foster an academic climate on campuses is a flimsy justification. They also threatened to take to the streets and staging a dharna in front of Naveen Niwas if the administration did not make a decision on the elections soon.
Khandapada MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, whom the BJD removed from the party’s vice president post on Tuesday, had also criticised the state government over the cancellation of students’ union elections.
In 2018, the elections across colleges and universities were cancelled, which were scheduled on October 11, due to cyclone Titli. Though elections were cancelled in 35 colleges and five major universities due to violence and nomination issues, more than 500 colleges and universities were prepared to go for polls. Candidates had already taken part in the ‘Why I Stand For’ meeting to address the students a day before the elections.
Instead of elections, the government suggested institutions to nominate students’ representatives to various bodies of universities or colleges the following year (2019), apprehending violence in universities and colleges amid the Assembly and general elections. “In larger interest of the students’ community, it has been decided by the state government that student union elections shall not be conducted in state universities and degree colleges, coming under the administrative control of Higher Education Department, in 2019,” the official notification said.
The elections were also not conducted in 2020 and 2021 in view of the COVID pandemic. No notification to hold polls was also released in 2022, leading to resentment among the students.
