JNU students turn up in large numbers to reclaim GSCASH

New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University's decision to disband Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) found no takers from the students as they voted on Wednesday to elect new student office bearers for the committee.

Nearly 30 per cent student turned out to cast their vote to reclaim the GSCASH and to reject the Internal Complaints Committee(ICC).

"2,336 student cast their vote out of total registered vote of 7,904 , which is big mandate as campus is on leave due to the festive fervor," said Prasant Mukherjee, state secretary, Student Federation of India.

"The students of JNU defied a letter issued by the JNU Chief Proctor which said disciplinary action would be taken against Bhagat Singh Saini, chairperson of the disbanded GSCASH Students Election Committee, if he continued to conduct the elections," said student.

Meanwhile, Shehla Rashid tweeted that JNU students turned up in huge number to vote in GSCASH election.

Another student from JNU said, "Despite continuous threats, intimidation and attempts to stop the GSCASH election by the administration, the students of JNU has turned up in large numbers to elect students' representative to GSCASH – A tight slap to administration."

GSCASH student election committee decided to go ahead with its polls to elect four representatives despite resistance from the varsity.

In another letter that was issued on Tuesday, varsity Registrar Pramod Kumar said there were efforts to hold "illegal elections to a non-existing body and ICC was the only body responsible to handle sexual harassment complaints".