Hyderabad University's students hold protest over land development issue; condemn CM Revanth Reddy’s remarks

NEW DELHI: Students of the University of Hyderabad (UoH) have held a protest against the Telangana government’s proposal to develop 400 acres of land at Kancha Gachibowli here to set up IT Parks and others besides condemning the recent statements of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in the Assembly on the issue. Raising slogans against the Congress government in Telangana, the students took out a march on the campus on Saturday night as per a protest call given by the University of Hyderabad Students’ Union (UoHSU), for burning an effigy of the Telangana government.

The protesting students demanded the government to stop the reported proposal to auction the land and register the land in the name of the University. The protesting students raised slogans against the police and an argument broke out, when they tried to burn the effigy. The protesters alleged they were manhandled during their peaceful protest and demanded the police to leave the campus. "Despite attempts to snatch the effigy and suppress the protest, the Students' Union successfully resisted and burned the government's effigy," a release from the UoHSU claimed.

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Government plans IT development

The University students also held a protest on March 13 demanding the Telangana government to stop the reported auction. Without naming BRS, Revanth Reddy had recently alleged in the Assembly that university students are provoked and Public Interest Litigations are filed in courts indirectly in the issue of planned development of a land parcel. Observing that the land is located in the Financial District of the city's IT hub, he said the government's endeavour is to promote investments, IT parks and generate employment on a large scale.

The land parcel has nothing to do with the University, he said. The students and others are opposing the proposal to undertake development at the land parcel on the grounds of environmental conservation. They asserted that the land incorporates the Mushroom Rock area in the UoH, near its East Campus. However, a UoH official previously stated that the land has been owned by the state government since 1974 and has never been transferred to the university.