Odisha’s Utkal Varsity to hold students’ union polls after two years

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, Sep 15:

As expected, the Post Graduate (PG) Council of Utkal University, the premier university in Odisha, today decided to hold students’ union election after a gap of two years bringing cheer among the students community in the varsity.

“The PG council today decided to hold students’ union election in the university. We took the decision after examining the circumstances prevailing in the university. Since there is no student unrest and the campus has so far remained calm, we decided to hold election,” said PG Council chairman Gopal Panda.

Panda, however, said adequate police personnel will be deployed to conduct election on September 29.

Students have welcomed the decision of the authority.

“It is a welcome step by the university authorities. The university had got a bad name on account of the cancellation of  the students’ union elections due to student unrest and several other reasons.Holding of elections will send out a positive signal to the state and the students’ communities that the university is calm,” said Sarvanand Senapati, a student of the university.

A meeting if the council consisting of 27 departments was held to decide the fate of the election process in the premier university of the state. The university administration had cancelled students’ union election for the last two years due to student unrest in the campus.

As OST had reported yesterday, the university authorities had already made up its mind to hold election this year. Today’s meeting was a mere formality to give a go ahead nod the the polls, a move that will help the ruling party to wrest control of the students’ union from the Congress.

Considering recent developments, it is quite clear that university authorities and the BJD government are in favour of holding polls in the premier university of the state. After poaching three former presidents of Utkal university students’ union from the Congress party, the ruling party hopes to demolish the Congress fort with the help of the defectors.

Former Chhatra Congress president Chinmoy Sahu recently joined BJD along with his supporters promising to hoist the BJD flag in the Congress citadel.