Residents fume as election 'mess' spreads to localities

 Residents living near Shaheed Bhagat Singh and College of Vocational Studies, where extra security personnel were deployed by the Delhi University administration and police, fumed over mismanagement in poll preparations.

Apart from the two colleges, Sri Aurobindo College and Deshbandhu College were asked to be given more attention. The four colleges are located in residential areas — Sheikh Sarai, Chirag Delhi and Malviya Nagar — and thus caused inconvenience to residents.

“The entire stretch of roads outside the colleges were full of pamphlets. Not just today, this has been going on for the last one week. Even inside the colonies they have put up posters, pamphlets and defaced walls by painting them with spray,” said Devesh Singh, a resident of Sheikh Sarai Phase-II, which is opposite two DU colleges.

According to residents, every year during elections they have to put up with blocked entry-exit points and traffic jams.

“The elections may be important for students, but things really get out of hand on polling day. Campaigners park their cars anywhere on the road without bothering about residents. They don’t budge as if they own the road,” said another resident Alka Mishra.
“Shouting slogans and other things are fine, but they need to understand there are people who have worries beyond student union elections,” Mishra said.

The harried residents complained that the whole stretch from the bus rapid transit corridor to Malviya Nagar Metro station saw traffic jams intermittently. “Traffic was moving at a snail’s pace when these candidates took out a procession on the stretch. Such traffic jams started taking place since morning,” added Mishra.

However, student union members claimed they were careful about not disturbing residents.

“Some inconvenience will happen because of the crowd that comes to vote. If the college is situated in a residential place, what other option do we have?” said Ashish, a National Students’ Union of India campaigner.

Residents said the university administration should keep tabs on election campaign going outside colleges and areas for campaigning should be demarcated.

“If the whole election process cannot take place inside the college, then the authorities should make sure that students should not enter residential areas,” said a residents’ welfare association member of Chirag Delhi.