A ‘chai’ problem for Delhi University students

The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on Tuesday released a delayed budget for the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) for the year 2017-18, which is yet to be cleared by the DUSU executive committee. The budget has grabbed eyeballs with NSUI’s allocation of Rs 22 for tea/coffee for the year, in comparison with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) expenditure of around Rs 22 lakh on tea during 2016-17.

By rule, each student who takes admission into the university contributes Rs 20 to the DUSU fund – a sum that amounts to around Rs 25 lakh. In 2016-2017, the budget of the ABVP-led DUSU for the academic year revealed expenses of Rs 21,78,000 under the Miscellaneous category (tea, photostats, repair, maintenance and others) out of the assigned Rs 25 lakh.

The following year, there was outrage in the student community during the DUSU election over “blatant misappropriation of expenses”. “We will make sure the wrongdoings of the past are not repeated,” current DUSU president Rocky Tuseed had said.

The NSUI’s budget is now out, and shows allocations as such: Rs 5 lakh for debates, seminars, lectures, symposiums, etc; Rs 4 lakh for sports events; Rs 3.36 lakh for magazines/newspapers; Rs 2.5 lakh for staff salary; Rs 2.4 lakh for photostats, repairs, maintenance, etc; Rs 80,000 for students’ aid; Rs 9,978 for scheduled castes/scheduled tribes’ welfare; Rs 60,000 for gender sensitisation; Rs 40,000 for social activities; Rs 40,000 for legal aid and awareness and Rs 50,000 for office contingency.

The budget, however, has to be cleared by the DUSU executive committee. “Since the university administration has not held elections to the executive committee posts, the union has not been able to start delivering on its election promises,” said Tuseed.

The DUSU executive committee is an important body as it has control over the annual budget of the union. According to law, executive committee elections should be held within 15 days of the DUSU election. This year the election officer was appointed by the vice-chancellor on November 2, and with the semester examinations round the corner, the elections have still not been held.