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Handmade posters, cards are in

BHUBANESWAR: Pencils, colour boxes, sketch pens and ink bottles lying scattered on tables and students engaging themselves in some work give the impression of a painting competition.

But hold on. They are on a serious job. With the State government implementing the Supreme Court guidelines and prohibiting use of printed material in college elections, the students are busy preparing handwritten material for forthcoming poll.

Core groups backing every candidate are churning out handmade posters and cards. Finishing touches are being given to big posters that are to be displayed at vantage positions.

Girl supporters are proving to be handy in this year’s election campaigning. A peek into the Botany Department of Utkal University gives you enough evidence. “We have requested our friends in the department to help us in preparing the posters and cards. While we have divided our supporters into different groups to take up jobs of campaigning and drawing posters, girls in particular have been of immense help to us,” says Sovan, a student of Vani Vihar.

The scene is similar in every college campus in the city. While some groups have been religiously following the stringent poll guidelines, others are trying their best to dodge the authorities.

According to the guidelines, no candidate should spend more than Rs. 5,000 in the election campaign. Since display of printed posters can easily be estimated, the contestants are going in for handmade posters spending less money. Students are critical of the ceiling on the expenditure. In BJB College, students say: “It is too less. During four or five days, we will be spending more than Rs. 15,000 only on fuel, let alone posters and other expenses.”

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