While politicians were busy telling people about their party's manifesto and people were busy letting the former know their demands, the Student Islamic Organisation (SIO) last week put forth its demand for future MLAs.
Chief among them being opening an Aligarh University centre in Maharashtra, as promised by the state government, and lifting the ban on union elections in campuses.
Young India often speaks of honest leaders, responsible and accountable government. But these youngsters, who are also students, often forget to make concrete demands during the elections. To get a taste of what the student population of Maharashtra, wants SIO interacted with many student organisations and was able to chalk out a list of five major demands which they want the new state government to address.
"There is no proper central university in Maharashtra. And the state government had promised to open a sub-centre of the Aligarh Muslim University in Maharashtra. But nothing has happened on that front. We want the new state government to address this issue," says Musab Faisal Qazi, a member of SIO from Kalyan.
On October 12, SIO had hosted an interaction with various student wings of political parties in Kalyan, which included representation from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's student wing, NCP's student wing and CPI-M's Student Federation of India.
While the student leadership is promoted in various states such as West Bengal, Kerala and New Delhi, where union elections are held in the campus, it is banned in Maharashtra. "We do not know the reason behind this ban. But union elections on the campuses allow to nurture future leaders," says Kiran Shikhare, president of NCP's student wing, Rashtravadi Vidyarthi Sena.
Another core issue which bothers the students is no regulation on college fees. "There is no standard fees though we have a Shiksha Shulk Committee to look into this matter. Students are charged exorbitantly and this should be regulated," he added.
The students also want the mushrooming business of private tuitions to be regulated. "Students bunk college lectures and attend coaching classes/tuitions to learn what they have missed. These classes then charge them high fees though there is no check on the quality of coaching they give," says Salman Ahmed, secretary of SIO.
But the most importantly, everybody present agreed that students need to have their voter ID made.
Well-known student politicos
Pramod Mahajan: Bharatiya Janata Party
Nitish Kumar: Samata Party
Sitaram Yechury: Communist Party of India (Marxist)
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