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Campus polls return to Karnataka: Government meets student unions, to follow Lyngdoh panel norms
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s government has officially begun consultations to restore college union polls in Karnataka and assured representatives of various student groups that guidelines for the polls would be framed at the earliest.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that student union polls will be held (File photo).
With the Karnataka government inclined to restore holding student union elections across colleges and universities, a meeting with various student unions was held Wednesday. During the day-long meeting, the government announced that it would hold polls as per the recommendations of the J M Lyngdoh Committee report, submitted in 2006.
The meeting followed a budget announcement by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that student body polls would be held across the state. Prior to this, the Congress had formed a panel to review the reinstatement of polls at colleges for the upcoming academic year.
Medical Education Minister Dr Sharan Prakash Patil and Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar held discussions with student organisations such as Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and others. A statement from Patil’s office said the state government would largely follow the Committee’s recommendations, with some modifications suited to current conditions.
The ministers assured representatives of various student groups that guidelines for the polls would be framed at the earliest.
During the meeting, student groups cutting across party lines urged the government to conduct elections without delay, by reminding the budget announcement made in March this year. Among the demands raised during the meeting were calls to reserve seats for women in the student council, as well as to ensure 70 per cent of the representatives in the student council are Kannada-speaking.
Some students also urged the government to give the student councils substantive powers, including the right to participate in syndicate meetings of the universities they represent.
In 2006, the Supreme Court directed the implementation of the Lyngdoh Committee’s recommendations for student union elections. The Committee had made 55 recommendations regarding the modes of elections, the dissociation of student elections and representation from political parties, eligibility criteria for candidates, and other matters.
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