The Hindu : New Delhi News : Electronic voting machines for DUSU elections now

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 24, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Electronic voting machines for DUSU elections now

The upcoming Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) elections will be historic in more ways than one. Going hi-tech, they will see parties vying for attention using the communication tools of the day like SMS and e-mails, while electronic voting machines (EVM) will perhaps be used for the first time in university elections in the country.

The Election Commission has ordered specially designed machines to suit the needs of the University. "The University got formal permission for the machines only on August 18. The requirements we have are different. There is one post, which many students will be standing for. The machine will also be used for the college union elections, so we couldn't have used the same machines that were used for the general elections,'' says Proctor Gurmeet Singh.

While the cost of the machines is still to be worked out, the rough estimate for each machine is about Rs. 10,000. The University will now have to work out how to share the costs of the machines. "We might give an advance and then transfer a part of the expenditure to the college,'' stated Prof. Singh.

Apart from the new technology, the University elections might also see another change with candidates being asked to participate in a debate. Along the style of the St. Stephen's elections, officials are toying with the idea of getting candidates to talk about their agendas.

"Maybe we will even involve television channels. They could have a phone-in maybe. But at the moment these are just ideas,'' said an official.

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The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) might be confident that it can pull off a win in the DUSU elections, but it is still looking to find a foothold in the politically charged Jawaharlal Nehru University campus. Still to establish itself as a major player here, the party is making a big effort to grasp the "difference" in the campus. However, there seems to be some sort of disagreement on the way forward, claim NSUI members. And the bone of contention seems to be a poster with Sonia Gandhi and the other star Congress faces outside the main gate of the campus.

"This is really not the way JNU functions,'' said a NSUI member. "We are not into star campaigners and it is very sad that we should have such posters. It is not in keeping with the image that NSUI is trying to build up in the campus,'' he pointed out.

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The Academy of Third World Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi organised a two-day national seminar this week on "Sustainable Development in South Asia: Issues in Infrastructure and Environment". The seminar was sponsored by the Planning Commission and aimed at creating a secure sustainable future with specific focus on issues of infrastructure and environment.

Looking at understanding the linkages between economic development and environmental degradation, better management of natural resources, reforming production and consumption patterns, rapid urbanisation and the growth of mega-cities, the seminar brought together experts in the field.

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The controversy over NCERT textbooks that has led to a debate in Parliament has found an echo in Jawaharlal Nehru University as well. With students and teachers agitated about some of the remarks made by members of Parliament about writers, there are late night panel discussions planned and students and professors have gone through the debate on the Internet to discover the views of their leaders on the writers they study.

"The debate was based on half-baked information and distortion of facts. They have said that `Modern India' by Bipin Chandra refers to Tilak as a terrorist; that is not true. The other issue is the use of unconstitutional words by creative writers. It has to be seen in the part of the context. The whole debate has got distorted,'' said Chaman Lal, a professor at the Centre for Indian Language at the JNU School of Languages.

-- Mandira Nayar

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