All eyes on Utkal as govt notifies poll date

Bhubaneswar: All eyes are on whether Utkal University will host student union elections this year even as the state government on Thursday notified the common poll date for all colleges and universities as September 29.
The varsity has skipped the student polls for the past two years because of campus unrest.
Higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahy said it was for the individual institutions to take a call on the basis of their own assessment of the campus situation.“The institutions will be free to take a call. Recommendations of the JM Lyngdoh Committee on the matter will be strictly followed during the polls,” Panigrahy told reporters.
Utkal Post Graduate Council chairman Gopal Panda said the council would meet soon to take a call on whether or not to hold student union polls this year. “The council will take a final decision after reviewing the academic and campus situation. A meeting will be held very soon,” he said.
Varsity sources said the campus might go to the polls this time as no recent major incidents of violence were reported this academic year. The ruling BJD is apparently keen to see Utkal goes to polls hoping its own candidates to win this time since most of the office-bearers in the outgoing council of 2011 have joined Biju Chhatra Janata Dal by deserting National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). Traditionally, NSUI has dominated Utkal student union in recent years.
Among others, Ekamra (Degree) College, Bhubaneswar, which had to cancel its student polls last year following violence, has decided not to hold elections this year.
“After the damage in last year’s violence, we are left with only six functional classrooms. We can’t afford to miss classes for even a day for elections. We have taken a decision to skip the polls as our infrastructure is most inadequate. Elections would mean a serious compromise with our academics,” said Ekamra principal Satyabrata Das.
Maharishi Degree College of Natural Law, which too had cancelled its election last year, has, however, decided to hold elections this time. “The situation is perfectly normal and peaceful. During a recent preparatory meeting, our faculty members favoured holding the polls,” said principal Basant K Sahoo.