Students charged for Senate poll that was never held: RTI reply

The Hindu: Mumbai: Wednesday, August 23, 2017.

Delayed results are not all that students graduating from the Mumbai University (MU) have to face. An RTI query has found that in 2015, they were made to pay a fee to vote in a senate election which never took place.

Activist Anil Galgali wants the university to take action against the MU finance and accounts department, which pocketed ₹50,420 collected from graduates to allow them to vote in elections to the MU senate in 2015.

Responding to Mr. Galgali’s Right to Information Act (RTI) queries, MU secretary (elections department) Ravindra Savle said, “Under the ‘A’ category (new registrations in the voters’ list), 2,521 applications were received.” He said 2,492 old voters were not charged any fee.

According to Mr. Galgali, the proposed election was thereafter cancelled, but not before the MU had already collected ₹6,820 from fresh graduates in July 2015, ₹43,480 in August and ₹120 in September 2015. “The university has not bothered to return the money collected from the new voters, setting a bad precedent,” the activist said.

Mr. Galgali has written to Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Education Minister Vinod Tawde and Minister of State for Education Ravindra Waikar that the money should be refunded. to the students with interest.