Colleges wary of state's election plan of students

PUNE: College teachers and principals are a worried lot with the draft Maharashtra Universities Act 2015 re-introducing students' elections that will pave the way for formation of students' council in colleges.
Managements fear the elections would disturb college peace and eventually the academic time-table. The draft report has been prepared by academicians under the chairmanship of state education minister Vinod Tawde.
A notification on implementation of the Act would be issued by the education department to all colleges in the state in the third week of January. But first it will be discussed with all-party representatives.
Students union elections were banned in Maharashtra in early 1990s following violent incidents and law and order problems. Tawde conducted several meetings with student organisations for almost a year before he incorporated this provision in the Universities Act.
Aniket Kolas, secretary of one such organisation in the city, said, "Many like us have been demanding reintroduction of students' elections for long. Consultations with stakeholders were conducted by the minister and we voiced our opinion on the need for it during the meeting. We are happy to see it in the draft Universities Act."
According to an official at the Savitribai Phule Pune University, the 15-member student council is selected through a process of nomination. Teachers nominate class representatives, who elect a general secretary and all nomination forms are subsequently sent to the university's director of department of students' welfare. The latter selects 15 members and of them, two are elected as president and secretary.
Ketan Pawar, a student, said, "The assumption was that only students with political background contest council elections. It's a platform to produce leadership qualities across categories of society. It gives rise to social and political leadership among youth. The previous generation of students was deprived of this opportunity. We are happy the concept is being revived."
Nandkumar Nikam, president of state federation of principals, said, "We are not opposed to the idea. But it's wrong to put the onus of conducting elections on principals. Our role as principals is academic-driven and our job is not to overlook such activities."
Though the education minister has assured that undesirable events associated with elections would be taken care of, college managements are skeptical about the outcome. Their main concern is campus safety.