No Students’ Union Election in Odisha for 6th year in a row; Opposition terms it 'cheap politics'

There will be no students’ union election in the state universities and degree colleges including those in Bhubaneswar for the sixth year in a row, official sources informed.

A letter issued by the Higher education department on the implementation of the academic calendar for the academic session 2023-24 does not have any information on the students’ election. This comes at a time when students are demanding the campus election. 

As per the letter, there is a minimum of 180 teaching days this fiscal and a total of 72 days excluding Sundays. Moreover, the summer vacation will begin from 5th May 2024 to 19th June 2024.

The letter from Rajata Kumar Mansingh, OES-I, Deputy Director, PTC has directed all the vice-chancellors of all state public universities under higher education department and principals of all government/autonomous/non-government aided and non-aided higher education institutions to follow the common academic calendar for the session 2023-24 very strictly. 

This will be the sixth consecutive year when the students’ union election will not be conducted in Odisha. The students’ union election was put off due to Cyclone Titli in 2018 while the state government once again called it off in 2019. 

The election was also not conducted in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.

The election is canceled every year for one or the other reason. The state government is intentionally cancelling election as it fears student leaders and hence doing cheap politics, alleged Opposition.