More than 90 per cent of the first-year students in Delhi University voted against the four-year undergraduate programme in a first-ever referendum on Thursday. Nearly 20 colleges from North Campus participated in the event.
11,556 students cast their vote, out of which 10,519 voted against the four-year undergraduate programme, 936 students gave positive response and remaining 101 votes were invalid, said president of All-India Students’ Association (AISA).
The AISA organised the referendum by holding an “open ballot voting” outside colleges in order to get response on the switch from three-year to four-year programme. Students started queuing to vote since 10 am.
“The peaceful referendum was disrupted as police and administration snatched ballot boxes and removed polling booths. The principal of Satyawati College confiscated a ballot box. The popularity of FYUP can be figured out by the manner in which the police and principals are colluding to silence the students,” the AISA said.
AISA president Sandeep Singh demanded that vice-chancellor Dinesh Singh should accept the result and rollback the four-year programme. “Students will not accept being treated as guinea pigs with bad syllabus and no infrastructure,” he said.