DSJ students barred form voting over non-payment of semester fees

NEW DELHI: The recently held inaugural student representative elections for Delhi University’s Delhi School of Journalism (DSJ) caused a furore, after faculty members allegedly barred students who did not pay their semester fee from voting and the entire elections were called off in the end.

Students said that the elections held on February 24, which were supposed to signify the emergence of democracy in less than a year of the institution, were marred by the controversy.

A section of students started protesting against being stopped from voting, following which members of the faculty eventually allowed those students to vote.

However, the protesting students rejected this idea, and demanded that voting be started afresh.

They said that the faculty’s proposal was only aimed at pacifying the protestors and the votes cast later were not even counted.

Soon, a DSJ student called Kunal Sehrawat, vice-president of Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU), who began arguing with the faculty members. It finally came to an end, after Manasvini M Yogi, Officer on Special Duty, intervened.

According to the DSJ students, the meeting did not reach an amicable end.

Both parties reportedly agreed that the decision on having fresh elections for the Students Represent post will be decided by the Dean, Students’ Welfare (DSW).

Talking about the protests, a senior official of DSJ said, “Certain students were not allowed to vote because they did not pay the semester fee, despite reminders and the fact that the last date of fee submission had passed. Technically, these students are not university students as of now.”

Responding to these allegations, a DSJ student said, “We were not even given the fee submission link on time. There are students who were sent the link later, and by the time they began logging in, the link had expired. We duly informed the faculty about it, but they did not care. Now the blame is on us. This isn’t fair.”

“When we paid our firstsemester fee, we also paid an amount that was charged for the whole year, like the electricity bill, media lab charges, etc. So, it is not as if we have not paid the fee at all,” Mohammed Ali, a student of DSJ, said. NEW DELHI: Ahead of Holi, Police Control Room (PCR) calls generally increase substantially. This year, Delhi Police have geared up to identify vulnerable spots and will heightened the security arrangements there ahead of the festival of colours.

Delhi Police data accessed by Millennium Post shows that last year, during a day before Holi and on the day of the festival, police received around 25,000 calls. “In many cases, we have found that several calls were made for one case, which is why the numbers of calls was high,” said a police officer.

Last year, the PCR personnel of Delhi Police responded to more than 8,000 calls on March 12, a day before Holi, while more than 11,000 calls were attended on the day of Holi.meanwhile, personnel of local police took action in more than 5,900 police calls.

Sources told Millennium Post they are scrutinising PCR calls to make sure this Holi goes crime free.

‘’Through the calls, we are identifying places where the highest number of calls are received, after which security will be heightened,” said a police official.

During Holi, calls about quarrels and scuffles are received in high numbers. Last year, the highest number of calls, i.e. over 2,000, were received from Outer Delhi and Rohini districts.

The least number of calls came from New Delhi district.

Thickly populated areas will see heightened security, with policemen guarding the borders connecting different districts.

Delhi Police will also hold meetings with their ‘eyes and ears’, i.e. street vendors and shopkeepers, and ask them to report and suspicious activities in their locality. Meanwhile, extra force will be deployed on Delhi roads that connect important places to avoid untoward incidents.

The Delhi Police’s community policing scheme ‘Prahari’ will also help prevent crime and maintain law and order.

After faculty members allegedly barred Delhi School of Journalism students who did not submit their semester fee from voting on February 24, the entire elections were called off in the end