University student elections may return: Dy CM Narayan

Student elections may return to the university campuses almost three decades after their suspension in the state.

Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan who was in the student movement during his college days, is positive of bringing back student elections. Speaking to reporters on Monday, he said, “We can consider re-introduction of student elections at campuses and I will look into the procedure.”

The student elections have been banned in Karnataka since the 1989-1990 academic year as the unions were termed responsible for caste-based violence in higher education institutions, untoward incidents and because such elections took a political turn.

During the previous JD(S)-Congress government, then deputy chief minister G Parameshwara had batted for re-introduction of student elections in colleges, as that would attract more youngsters to politics. Even the then higher education minister G T Devegowda was positive about it and discussed the same with then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

The committee constituted to propose amendments to the Karnataka State Universities Act (2000) headed by Prof N R Shetty, former vice-chancellor of Bangalore University, also recommended re-introduction of student union elections in universities.