DUSU polls: Students ready with wish list

Youth parliament

It is the biggest exercise in democracy for the youth of the Capital. Over 95000 students of Delhi University, across 51 colleges, are set to elect their leaders in the forthcoming DUSU polls.

Expectations from the future office-holders are high and students from north campus, South campus and off-campus colleges have drawn their distinct wish lists already. Faith in student politicians or not, everyone’s ready with their set of demands. Are our aspiring student leaders with political ambitions listening?

DU’s north campus is said to be one of the most student-friendly campuses in the country. However, issues exist here as well. Sanya Hashmi, pursuing English (Hons.) III year, at Ramjas College, says, “We need more girls’ hostels. In north campus, only three co-ed colleges – Ramjas, SRCC, and St. Stephen’s have girls’ hostels. Here too, seats are very limited. In Ramjas, only one hostel seat is allocated to each course and given on merit basis. So there is a stiff competition and suspense over getting accommodation till the very end. Coming from  Allahabad, I tried for a hostel seat in first year itself but managed it in II year only.”

Yashaswini Saraswat, student of Economics (Hons.) III year, Hindu College says, “The college and varsity administr­ations are always ill-infor­m­ed. You can never get the right information on exams, results, document submission and collection dates from them. You have to keep running from pillar to post to get basic info. I wish our future student leaders could do something about it – set up a helpline or take up this problem with the varsity authorities.”

South and off-campus colleges have their own concerns. The colleges around Satya Niketan in south Delhi, like Moti Lal Nehru and Ram Lal Anand, have a transportation problem at hand. No buses ply from Ring Road to these coll­eges forcing students to spend on autos. 

Gautam Kumar, a student of Political Science (Hons.) III year at Moti Lal Nehru College, says, “In the absence of buses, the situation worsens in winter, especially for girls. For students of evening colleges, it is a perennial problem. It was taken up by the outgoing students’ union as well, but it didn’t help. 

Safety concerns, though, have been largely addressed since the daylight murder of a girl student of Ram Lal Anand last year. Police presence has improved vastly now.”

Students of DU’s off-campus colleges, however, definitely have a safety issue. Prateek Sagar, pursuing History (Hons.) at Swami Shradd­h­a­n­and College (near Har­y­a­na border), complains, “I have noticed that anyone can wander in and out of our college at any time.

Unknown vehicles are always moving about in college premises and there are no security guards.”

Also, though these recently set-up colleges have swanky new buildings, the infrastructure is not yet in place. 

Prateek rues, “Our library hardly has any books.” Priyanka Kalra of Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences in Dwarka, adds, “The canteen here is as good as non-existent. There is no taste or variety in food items and on days when you don’t get food from home, it is better to go hungry.” For sure, our future student-leaders have a lot on their plate to tackle.