AU moves a step further towards student union

Prayagraj: The six member committee, constituted by the officiating vice-chancellor of Allahabad University to suggest the modalities and guidelines for constituting the next student union, have finalised its report.
Now the report would be tabled at the meeting of the deans and after incorporating their suggestions, the same would be submitted to the VC who would then constitute another high-powered committee for approving the suggestive modalities.
In the academic session 2019-20 the then vice-chancellor Prof RL Hangloo had changed the constitution of student union on the campus and replaced the age-old student union with student council. However, after implementing the concept and holding the elections for the maiden student council on the campus, the student leaders did not participate in the said elections and student council never saw the light of the day on the campus along with on three other constituent colleges of AU.
However, after taking over as the officiating VC of AU, Prof Tiwari held a meeting on the campus on February 27 and decided that AU should have student union on the campus. This was also included in agenda of the meeting of the Academic Council (AC).
Later, Prof Tewari had constituted a committee, headed by dean student welfare (DSW) to suggest changes and reaching out on modalities that could be followed to constitute students union on the campus.
“We have prepared the report and the same would be tabled in the meeting of all deans so that the opinion of the faculty members is also incorporated”, said AU’s DSW, Prof KP Singh. The DSW further added that the committee had mulled over all the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee, based on, which all the elections since 2005 were held on the campus.
“We have not suggested any major changes but yes those, which do not fit to the present scenario or those which seems impractical by the passage of time—for instance limit of poll expenditure of Rs 5000 (maximum)—should be changed”, said Prof Singh.
Commenting on the issue, former vice president of AUSU and leader of NSUI (national student union of India), Akhilesh Yadav said, “This is a welcome step, which shows the commitment of the varsity authorities for giving back the student’s union to the student fraternity in place of impractical student council as suggested by the former VC”.