Students at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) on Tuesday launched an indefinite class boycott in protest against the Telangana government’s decision to auction 400 acres of Kancha Gachibowli through the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TGIIC) to build an IT park.
“Police officials are not letting us go outside the gate of the campus to protest against the ongoing deforestation by TGIIC. Kancha Gachibowli is home to hundreds of flora and fauna species. We are demanding an immediate halt to TGIIC works and removal of police from campus. We have launched indefinite class boycott strike today and we will continue till deforestation stops,” said Akash Kumar, vice president of UoH students’ union. He also demanded that the police and more than 50 earthmoving machines “razing down the forests” in the land should be taken away from the university immediately.
The students said that Kancha Gachibowli, located near the central university, was home to 734 plant species, 220 bird species, and vulnerable wildlife such as the Indian Star Tortoise. The students gathered at the main gate of the institution and raised slogans against the Congress government. The University of Hyderabad Students’ Union (UoHSU) and other unions and parties aligned with it.
Amid the protests, TGIIC, which started clearing the land in the Kancha Gachibowli village in the IT corridor of Hyderabad using earthmovers on Sunday, has continued the activity on Monday and Tuesday. The Telangana police on Sunday took 55 students into preventive detention and later released 53 students, but two students — B Rohit Kumar and Erram Naveen Kumar — were arrested and remanded to judicial custody, the protesting students said.
{{/usCountry}}Amid the protests, TGIIC, which started clearing the land in the Kancha Gachibowli village in the IT corridor of Hyderabad using earthmovers on Sunday, has continued the activity on Monday and Tuesday. The Telangana police on Sunday took 55 students into preventive detention and later released 53 students, but two students — B Rohit Kumar and Erram Naveen Kumar — were arrested and remanded to judicial custody, the protesting students said.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, BJP MPs from Telangana led by Union minister G Kishan Reddy met Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday and sought the central government’s intervention in protecting the 400 acres of land at the village. They requested the Centre to “immediately explore options to halt the land auction process.” Pradhan assured the MPs of “appropriate cooperation in this regard”.
The state government in a statement issued on Monday reiterated that it was the sole owner of 400 acres of land in Kancha Gachibowli village and a survey was conducted on July 19, 2024 in the presence of university officials for boundary demarcation.
“The University of Hyderabad does not own even an inch of land in this survey....The government headed by chief minister A Revanth Reddy gives the highest priority to the hyper-local sustainability and environmental needs in every single plan,” the government said.
Countering the claim of the state government, the university, in a statement, said that no survey was conducted in July 2024 by the revenue authorities to demarcate 400 acres of land at Kancha Gachibowli. The university also denied that it agreed on the demarcation of the land and said that it has been requesting the state government for the demarcation.
With inputs from PTI