Siliguri student union elections will be held on Saturday

Siliguri, Feb. 2.TT: Elaborate security arrangements with the promise to enforce existing and new rules stringently have been worked out by at least three colleges in Siliguri where the student union elections will be held on Saturday.

Some of the guidelines for the election are “firsts” in that they had not been implemented before and the student unions have agreed to abide by all of them as a “goodwill gesture”.

The regulations will come into force from tomorrow, hours before the polls. Principals of three institutes — Siliguri College, Siliguri Women’s College and Siliguri Government Polytechnic — held a meeting with police officials and student union representatives to finalise the dos and don’ts.

Nearly 4,500 students in Siliguri will exercise their franchise to elect the class representatives and form unions.

Police sources said Section 144, restricting the movement or assembly of five persons or more, will be enforced within 200 metres of each institution from tomorrow till the elections were over. This is a change from last year when the order was applicable to a 100-metre radius.

“The prohibitory order prevents the students’ organisations from setting up camps close to the colleges,” said Malay Karanjai, the principal of Siliguri College.

The student unions also have to take off all publicity materials — like banners, festoons, posters — from inside the campus and within 200 metres of it when Section 144 comes into force. “The organisations have to remove publicity materials from the college 48 hours before polls,” Karanjai said. This is also a “first”. Another first-time rule is that campuses will be checked before the elections to flush out outsiders.

Sources said polls would be held in all 45 seats of Siliguri College, in 11 of 22 seats and in 20 of 31 seats at Siliguri Women’s College and the Polytechnic respectively. The remaining seats have been won uncontested.

The heavy security bandobast comes in the wake of a series of campus clashes rocking north Bengal in recent times. On January 5, the principal of Raiganj College was beaten up by alleged Trinamul members after he refused to reschedule the election. Chhatra Parishad members clashed with police at Islampur College last week after the CPM and SFI jointly formed the student union.

The heads of all the three Siliguri colleges said only valid voters would be allowed to enter the campuses on the voting day. “Each student must come with his/her current year’s fee book and a photo identity proof. For second and third year students, they must carry UG mark sheets. Students who have failed in the UG exams cannot vote. A college representative will be at the entrance to verify the documents,” one of the principals said. In a three-year undergraduate course, all students are entitled to three votes.

Principal Karanjai and the student leaders, who insisted that the guidelines would help conduct the polls peacefully, said some of the rules existed earlier, too, but had not been enforced stringently. The other rules, though not part of any statute, would be followed out of “goodwill”.

“The college authorities can restrict entry of outsiders any day,” a senior Chhatra Parishad leader said. “Regarding the imposition of prohibitory orders outside colleges, it is the administration’s prerogative.”

But the order to remove publicity material from the college is not backed by any law, principal Karanjai said. “If there is any violation (that is, students do not remove the banners or festoons), we can do nothing much but only request them to abide by it,” Karanjai said.

Trinamul Chhatra Parishad leaders said they would request the administration and the college authorities to relax this guideline. “We would ask the authorities to allow students organisations to have their banners and posters placed in and outside the colleges,” said Amrit Poddar, the Darjeeling district working president of the TMCP.

The SFI said effectiveness of the arrangements would be evident only after the polls. “Effectiveness of the arrangements and the goodwill gestures will be proved only if all students cast votes without hindrance,” said Saurav Das, the Darjeeling district SFI secretary. “We will abide by the guidelines as long as others do so.”

Elections in Surya Sen College in neighbouring Jalpaiguri district and Bagdogra College on the outskirts of Siliguri will be also held on Saturday.