Govt to hold student polls in all varsities across state

Kolkata: State Education minister Partha Chatterjee said on Friday that the Bengal government will be holding elections in all the colleges and universities across the state.

"Policy-wise we have decided to conduct the election but the exact date can be confirmed only after consulting the administration. We are already in talks with the police administration," Chatterjee told reporters at Nabanna.

He held a meeting with student leaders on Thursday and said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will hold a workshop with the students' representatives on November 14 and 15.

The minister didn't specify any time frame but sources in the Education department said that the state may conduct the election in the beginning of next year.

"We wanted to know about the exact situation and there are still some issues that need to be sorted out. We are also trying to bring up new leaders who can work for the organisation in future," said Chatterjee, after holding an extensive meeting with state and district-level leaders.

The Education department has already issued a notification on Thursday regarding elections at four universities, namely Presidency, Jadavpur, Rabindra Bharati and Diamond Harbour.

Students' union polls in universities other than the Diamond Harbour Women's University had been put on hold for more than two years since January 2017.

It may be mentioned

that the state Education department may also bring amendments in the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Composition, Functions and Procedure for Election of Students' Council) Rules, 2017, with all student unions including Trinamool Chatra Parishad raising their voice for student unions instead of the student council.

Representatives from Jadavpur University, which has

three different unions in its different faculties, said that

they want to stick with the old format of electing class representatives through student elections.

A referendum was held by the students of the varsity in January this year, where 97 percent of the students had voted for student unions.