While speaking about the new Maharashtra Public Universities Act of 2016, education minister Vinod Tawde has said that the Act would restart college elections, which had been discontinued since 1992. He added that the decision was taken in light of the directions of the courts and recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee, which gave the go ahead for restarting campus elections.
Justifying the decision, Mr Tawde said that today youngsters had become more aware of what was happening around them and hence should be given an opportunity to exercise their right to elect. “(On the basis of) demands from various student organisations and academicians as well as the directions of the courts and Lyngdoh committee recommendations the Act has included elections to Students Council and various other bodies,” said Mr Tawde.
As per the Act, elections to various authoritative bodies of the university like the senate, management and academic council will also be done through elections. The revised draft of the Act, which was tabled by Mr Tawde on Tuesday, has also seen the number of seats through elections being increased to almost 38 per cent to the authoritative bodies of the university. The Act has also provided for reservations in the election process and Mr Tawde assured that elections would be held in the same way they were held in the past before they were discontinued.
This means that campus elections will see the involvement of student organisations owing allegiance to political parties as well and would become an important event in the academic calendar of the university and their affiliated colleges. The exhaustive explanation in the Act in this regard has also enumerated the various other bodies in the university that will see posts being filled up through elections.
Representatives of various student organisations like the Maharashtra Navanirman Vidhyarthi Sena, Yuva Sena, National Students' Union of India, ABVP and Prahaar Sanghatana said that it was a welcome move and would give students a chance to get a taste of democratic processes.
