Eye on polls, 'volunteers' help aspirants

NEW DELHI: With one eye on the students' union elections which follow in September, Delhi University's student groups are going all out to help applicants with admissions. Along with helpdesks set out by colleges, volunteers from these groups wearing 'May I help you' badges offer assistance in filling forms and getting documents in order. These helpdesks are often the newbie's first encounter with student politics in DU. Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyartiya Parishad (ABVP), All India Students' Association (AISA), and National Students' Union of India (NSUI) have all set out desks and are fielding queries."The cutoffs are very high and there are non-campus colleges with 97-100% as their cutoffs. The applicants are confused due to the new directives issued by the university and varying guidelines. We are aiming to help applicants who are worried regarding admissions and are also arranging hostels and paying guests for them. The union in power is not performing its duty effectively. We are in the colleges only to help aspirants in admission and not for membership drive," said Gorav Tushir, a member of NSUI who will contest for a central panel post in the DU students' union this year. These helpdesks are on college premises but the attendants also offer some informal counseling and help choose colleges. "Most queries are related to documents and certificate requirement for the admissions," says Vikas Gautam an ABVP volunteer. "We are trying to clear doubts and apprehensions regarding the FYUP rollback," Shashi Prakash Narayan from AISA at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College says.(With inputs from Hardik Targotra)