BHUBANESWAR: With election fever setting in at colleges and universities in the Capital, pre-poll violence has started taking campuses into its grip.
This year's students' union election is expected to take place anytime after first week of October. However, much ahead of the announcement of the poll dates, two cases of campus violence have already been reported from BJB Autonomous College and Rajdhani College here.
The issue raises concern as it not only disturbs the cordial atmosphere of a college or university but also puts safety of students at risk both in and outside the campus.
In the group clash at BJB autonomous college as many as five students, including two girls were injured following a clash between two groups inside the campus in August this year. The incident, as alleged, took place near the college main gate when one group holding sharp weapons allegedly attacked its rival group injuring five of them critically. All five were immediately shifted to Capital Hospital where they underwent a treatment.
Likewise, in Rajdhani College, Prashant Dalei, a Plus III second year student was allegedly attacked by a group of non-students who were not happy with his increasing popularity among the students ahead of the student elections.
Inadequate counseling of students, involvement of non-students as well as intervene by local leaders of various political parties are some of the reasons largely responsible for such violence, alleged Rajat Kumar Parida, a student leader from Rajdhani College.
Students from universities and colleges such as Ramadevi, Utkal and BJB also pointed out the same problems and sought adequate intervention of their institution authorities as well as government to prevent such things from happening.
On the other hand the college and varsity authorities said that they have taken all possible measures to ensure non-recurrence of such incidents prior to polls.
Rajdhani College Principal Sasmita Tripathy said that in view of the upcoming polls they have sked local police to keep eye on non-students and outsiders trying to create disturbance in the college premises. Tripathy said that the college authority have also conducted student counseling after the incident.
Ramadevi University Vice-Chancellor Padmaja Mishra told this paper that to keep campus free from any kind of violence, counseling of students is being done in their campus throughout the year. "We also have our disciplinary committee which takes prompt measures to address such issues during election,” she told.
Utkal University Vice-Chancellor SM Patnaik who expressed pleasure over the peaceful atmosphere of the varsity campus ahead of polls this year also said the varsity has its disciplinary committee which remains active throughout the year to prevent such activities. The university officials also said that in the wake of campus violence during past elections, the security inside campus has also been tightened this year.
Commenting on the issue, Higher Education Secretary Bishnupada Sethi said, "Our department has officials who regularly monitor and review the safety and security inside colleges and universities. We will issue a guideline to the higher education institutions soon to ensure smooth conduct of students' union election."