Students council polls dropped this year too

NAGPUR: The Nagpur University (NU) students will have to bank on academicians or wait till next year to raise their concerns in Senate, as students council won’t be formed even as per the old norms now. This became clear on Tuesday, when NU declared schedule of next Senate meeting on March 13 and invited questions from members.

Last year too, the university had faced flak from several quarters when it delayed the students council process, leaving only 15 days for the council to function. President and the secretary of the council failed to raise any substantial issues in the only Senate meeting they attended.

Vice chancellor SP Kane didn’t answer TOIs calls and SMS on the issue.

Students Welfare director Dilip Kawadkar told TOI that the government didn’t issue any instructions regarding constitution of the council.

In October last year, the government had released common statute for formation of students body, but that would be implemented in the next academic session. NU officials say the government had allowed nominations as per old norms only for the previous year, which can’t be applied to this session.

Though the Students Council made a comeback in the new Maharashtra Public Universities Act in 2017, both the government and universities have been lackadaisical in its implementation. Among several omissions and commissions, the formation of students council had to be done as per provisions of old Act. This decision too was taken only in December last, and universities completed the procedure by January and February.

Teachers and students slammed NU administration for conveniently delaying the installation while several student issues remained pending.

From next academic year, every student enrolled in the university would be able to vote for their college students’ council elections. Earlier, students were only allowed to vote for their class representatives. Students can cast a maximum of five votes — for the class representative, president of college council, secretary, a woman candidate, and a representative from the reserved category.

The government has imposed an age limit of 25 years for candidates. He/she will be disqualified if he/she completes seven academic years from first entry to higher education, basically allowing only undergraduate or postgraduate students to contest.