- Thursday, April 03, 2025
The students have announced boycott of classes from April 1, demanding the removal of police personnel and earth-moving machinery from the campus
By: India Weekly
A PROTEST rally by students and faculty of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) against the Telangana government’s plans to develop a 400-acre land parcel in Kancha Gachibowli bordering the varsity, was stopped by the police in Hyderabad on Wednesday (2).
The UoH Teachers Association led a rally from Ambedkar Auditorium to East Campus in solidarity with the agitating students.
According to students, the police barricaded the entire East Campus area while heavy machinery was deployed to clear the land parcel.
As the protesters attempted to advance, the police stopped and dispersed them using “mild force”.
The demonstrators raised slogans such as “police go back”.
A protesting student told media that the police resorted to lathi-charge on students and faculty.
However, a police official denied the claims and said, “They were prevented from taking out the rally.”
The University of Hyderabad Students’ Union (UoHSU) and other unions and parties aligned with it have launched an indefinite protest and announced boycott of classes from April 1, demanding the removal of police personnel and earth-moving machinery from the campus.
The student groups and environmental activists have voiced opposition to the proposal to undertake development work at the site, citing environmental conservation concerns.
The students claim the area is home to over 455 species of flora and fauna, but the Telangana Government has reiterated that it is not a forest land.
The Telangana government’s plans to develop IT infrastructure and others on 400 acres of land over which student groups of UoH held protests intensified on March 31 with the government maintaining that the land parcel belonged to it and not the varsity.
However, the UoH Registrar contradicted the government’s claim that the boundary of the land in question was finalised.
Telangana deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and industries minister D Sridhar Babu, both alumni of UoH, had on Tuesday asserted that the government has not taken even an inch of the university’s land.
Political slugfest
The issue has also led to a political slugfest between the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP and BRS.
BRS working president K T Rama Rao attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the state government not allowing BRS to visit the UoH.
He said Gandhi had come to UoH not once but twice within a month during the previous BRS regime to protest on the Rohith Vemula issue.
The BRS government had then ensured security and protection to him, Rao said.
“Now that Congress Govt is at the helm of the state, they refuse to allow us anywhere near Hyderabad Central University and deploy police to prevent us,” he said.
“Why this hypocrisy Rahul Ji? What is your Govt trying to hide from the world?,” Rao said.
BJP MPs from Telangana, led by union coal and mines minister and the party’s state unit president G Kishan Reddy, met union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Delhi and sought his intervention in the issue. Pradhan assured them of “appropriate cooperation”.
The delegation sought “central govt’s intervention for protecting 400 acres of ecologically-sensitive land in Kancha Gachibowli,” Pradhan said.
“The green space near the University of Hyderabad is a carbon sink and home to a wide variety of flora and fauna. Have assured Hon’ble MPs of appropriate cooperation in this regard,” Pradhan said in a post on social media platform ‘X’.
Telangana minister Sridhar Babu said the BRS and BJP should stop their false campaign on the issue.
He alleged that some individuals and associations affiliated to some parties are misleading people with false information and trying to create hurdles to the government’s work.
As the university had no legal ownership rights until now over a single acre of land allotted, the government, at a recent meeting with university officials, assured them that the it will address the long-pending issue and provide legal ownership rights to the university, he said.
He assured that natural rock formations, lakes and the famous mushroom rock in the land parcel would be safeguarded.
The minister asserted that the present Congress regime got the government’s ownership over the 400 acres of land confirmed following a protracted legal battle.
State revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy remarked that the relationship between the two opposition parties is like a “fevicol bond”. (PTI)
