Campus polls to return after nearly 4 decades

The Karnataka Cabinet on Wednesday approved the reintroduction campus elections in the state from the current academic year — 2026-27.The student elections will return in the state after nearly four decades (they were banned in 1989-90 during the chief ministership of Veerendra Patil following incidents of campus violence).Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has been keen about the elections. The move was a budgetary promise of the state government for 2026-27. Briefing reporters after the Cabinet, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said the college administration would be compelled to conduct elections if students are in favour of polls.PU, degree colleges in Karnataka to see campus polls with women quota However, he noted that the elections wouldn’t be enforced if students voluntarily opt out of it. “(It’s) not mandatory. If students decide they don’t need an election, it’s their choice.”As per the government’s design, each union will have one president, two vice-presidents (one woman), one general secretary, two joint secretaries (1 woman) and an executive committee (six people, including two women).However, the government has decided against providing caste-based reservation. “We didn’t want to promote caste-based …(sic),” the deputy chief minister added.The government has also prevented students from participating in elections under the banner of student unions. However, Parameshwara explained that members of student unions could contest independently without any affiliations.“No organisation and political parties will be allowed. They have to elect themselves and the (candidate) should be an official student of the college… We cannot help it if they are members of any organisation.”Noting that a committee headed by Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil had been formed to look into the issue, he said: “They (committee) visited various colleges and universities and have provided a report. We have decided based on that.”Shakti smart cardsThe Cabinet decided to implement smart cards for beneficiaries of the Shakti scheme, which provides free bus travel in non-premium state-run buses for women domiciled in Karnataka.Parameshwara pointed out that the project was a bit delayed and would be rolled out at a cost of Rs 237 crore under a PPP model.He noted that a swipe would make all the necessary data available, but he denied procuring any caste-based data from beneficiaries (It was speculated earlier that the smart card project would help to ascertain the number of beneficiaries from the SC/ST communities, which will help in determining the exact amount taken from the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan corpus.CM Negila Yogi YojaneThe Cabinet approved the CM Negila Yogi Yojane. As per the plan, the government intends to help farmers plough their fallow lands. The project would apply to everyone owning three acres of land or less, adding that their lands will be ploughed for free by the government by renting them from other farmers who may own tractors.He explained that the idea was based on a similar initiative by Gauribidanur’s independent MLA (now associated with the Congress) Puttaswamy Gowda.

Source: Deccan Herald