Hyderabad
The Hyderabad police on Friday thwarted the attempt of the Osmania University Students Joint Action Committee to take out a march and stage a demonstration in protest against the leakage of question papers of various recruitment tests conducted by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC).
The OU JAC called upon the students to take out Nirudyogula March (a procession of the unemployed) from the campus to Gun Park near state assembly in the morning. It also called for a two-day “deeksha” (sit-in demonstration) at the Arts College since Friday afternoon.
OU vice-chancellor Prof Ravinder Yadav in a statement on Thursday said no student organisation approached the administration with any request for permission for the protest demonstrations. He pointed out that the executive council of the university had already decided that no protests would be allowed on the campus to protect the academic atmosphere.
Since Friday morning, the police blocked all the entry points leading to the Arts College, where the students planned to assemble to take up the protests. Except students who were appearing for semester examinations, no outsider was allowed into the campus.
A tense situation prevailed on the OU campus, as the police detained scores of students who made an attempt to gate-crash into the campus, bundled them into police vans and took them away to different parts of the city, where they were let off later in the evening.
{{/usCountry}}A tense situation prevailed on the OU campus, as the police detained scores of students who made an attempt to gate-crash into the campus, bundled them into police vans and took them away to different parts of the city, where they were let off later in the evening.
{{/usCountry}}A police official said on condition of anonymity that several JAC leaders were picked up from their residences and hostels located on the campus on Thursday midnight and shifted to various police stations.
However, by afternoon, some students managed to enter the campus and made an attempt to stage a demonstration in front of the Arts College building. They were immediately taken into custody and shifted to the OU police station.
“We want the government to order a judicial inquiry by a sitting high court judge into the leakage of question paper of TSPSC exams. The commission was playing with the lives of the unemployed. It should pay a compensation of ₹1 lakh to each job applicant for the goof-up,” a student JAC leader, who identified himself as Nagesh, said.
In the morning, the police also kept several Congress leaders including Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy, vice-president Mallu Ravi, former MP P Anjan Kumar Yadav and others under house arrest at their residences and stopped them from going to the OU campus to join the protest deeksha.
The PCC president said it was ridiculous on the part of the state government to impose restrictions on the movement of the Congress leaders who were only demanding that the real culprits in the TSPSC question paper leakage be brought to book.
He challenged Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his son and state IT minister K T Rama Rao for an open debate with students at Arts College. “If you are sincere and not connected with the question paper leakage, you should accept my challenge,” he said.
Reddy called upon the party workers to take up protest demonstrations from 10 to 5 pm on March 27 in all the district headquarters. “We shall visit all the universities from April 1 and meet the students. We shall also take up a massive protest rally in the second week of March in Hyderabad,” he announced.