Telangana Governor visits IIIT Basar; interacts with students, hears out their grievances

HYDERABAD : Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on Sunday visited the IIIT campus at Basar, interacted with students and assured them that their grievances and suggestions would be directed to the authorities concerned. The Governor went around the hostels, mess, library and other facilities on the campus and took note of the prevailing conditions there, a release from the Raj Bhavan said.

Students at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, popularly known as IIIT Basar in Nirmal district, had in June held protests over 12 demands including to fill up posts, appoint a full-time Vice-Chancellor and to improve amenities on the campus. Subsequently, in July, protests were held after suspected food poisoning of students. Today, the Governor held interactions with the students personally and in groups with the administration and patiently listened to their woes. The students' grievances ranged from quality of the food in the hostel mess to non-supply of laptops to them. They have also highlighted the non-availability of latest subject books in the library, the release said.

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The students have also flagged a large number of vacancies in teaching positions. The Governor visited their hostels and the rooms of the girl students and interacted with them separately. Soundararajan discussed with the administrative functionaries of the university, including Vice-Chancellor in-charge professor Venkata Ramana and other faculty members and staff. Later, speaking to reporters, the Governor said that the main purpose of her visit was to give morale support to the students and to listen to their grievances with concern and help them bounce back into the academic mode. As a mother, she stated she had felt like personally visiting the campus to give them a morale boost and help them to focus on their dreams to make it big in life, the release said.

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Referring to the health of girls, Soundararajan found that most of them appear to be malnourished and called for thorough health check-up to help them get required medical help. As the students pointed out issues of quality of food, basic facilities and infrastructure in the hostels and colleges, and the supply of laptops, the Governor called for addressing these basic issues on a priority basis in a time-bound manner. "Their demands are very simple and it is their right to expect those facilities in an institution like this. These are basic needs of students and it is very unfortunate that it has not been taken care previously. I have assured them…and convey their problems (to authorities) so that in a time-bound manner the problems are solved," the Governor said. "It is our duty to create necessary basic facilities and help them focus on their studies and research," she added.

When informed about the plight of the family of a student, who recently passed away due to the alleged food-poisoning incident on the campus, Soundararajan said that she would extend possible help to the bereaved family. Later, the Governor also visited the Telangana University campus at Dichpally in Nizamabad district and interacted with the students and the faculty there. Secretary to the Governor K Surendra Mohan and other senior functionaries of the Raj Bhavan accompanied Soundararajan.