Kathmandu, February 6

Tribhuvan University, the country’s oldest and biggest university is all set to propose a new date for holding the much-awaited Free Student Union polls, which have not been held for the past seven years.

TU is planning to propose third week of Chaitra (First week of April) as the new deadline for holding the FSU polls.

Talking to The Himalayan Times, TU rector professor Sudha Tripathy said that they were planning to propose third week of Chaitra as the new date for holding FSU polls as it was most suitable time to conduct polls without disturbing the academic calendar.

TU had earlier formed a three-member committee under the coordination of professor Tripathy to create an environment for holding the FSU polls at the earliest.

Other members of the committee included Ganga Bahadur Thapa, chief of the Department of Student Welfare and Sports Council and professor Yagya Adhikari.

“At first we will hold talks with the student unions regarding the poll date, election system, age bar and other factors. We will set the date in consensus with student unions,” she said.

She stated that the committee would hold talks with representatives of the three student unions on February 11. She said talks would also be held with other student unions in the coming days.

“All the students’ unions will be consulted before determining the poll date, election system and other issues that need to be addressed,” she said.

“We need to slightly amend the TU acts too to conduct the FSU polls,” she said, adding, “We will consult student unions before beginning any work.”

She said that after discussion with the Office of the Controller of the Examination, the third week of Chaitra was found to be the most favourable time to conduct FSU polls thus if all the student unions agree on the date, the FSU polls will be held accordingly.

The FSU polls has not been conducted since 2009. After series of talks and homework, it was going to be held last year but it was also postponed in the last hour after there was dispute between student unions over students’ admission by some unions to collect votes.

A delegation of students affiliated to ANNISU-R aligned to Unified CPN-Maoist had met TU Vice Chancellor professor Tritha Khaniya to draw his attention towards the existing problems in the varsity.

They had also urged him to conduct Free Students’ Union polls. Responding to students’ concern, Khaniya had pledged to conduct the polls at the earliest.