HYDERABAD: The students of Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) had to face the wrath of police officials on the third day of their protest against fee hike, on the campus at Gandipet. One students was taken into custody and several others sustained injuries.ABVP activists, who condemned the management for increasing the fee by `85,000 annually in the middle of the academic session, were taken into custody from the college campus, where they were protesting along with the students of the college.
A day after the first year students boycotted their exams and joined the protest spearheaded by the second year students, Friday saw support coming from the III and IV year students too, who boycotted their classes. Notably, the proposed fee hike will affect only the students of first two years. “On Friday morning the gates to the college were closed so we climbed over the wall and entered. While we were staging protests with the students, in about an hour’s time the police reached the spot and dragged us into their vehicle,” said J Dileep, city secretary ABVP, from the Rajendernagar police station, where he along with the other karyakartas were detained.
Meanwhile, students tried to stop the police from taking away the ABVP activists.
Vemula Avinash, a second year student, said that it was unnerving for the students who were there doing a peaceful protest to suddenly find the police on the campus and forcefully shoving the ABVP activists, who were staging a protest alongside.
Police deny scuffle
“In the scuffle with the police and in trying to stop them from arresting the activists, several students were injured. They even arrested one student, though we know they will deny this,” said Avinash.
Meanwhile, GV Ramanan Goud, inspector, Narsingi police station, denied any scuffle. “We only took the outsiders into preventive custody. They had jumped over the compound wall and intended to indulge in disruptive activities. We did not take any student into custody,” he said.
College Management to meet today
Under pressure from students and even the government, the management has decided to take up the fee issue in a meeting of its directors on Saturday. Students said that if the decision is not in their favour, the agitation would intensify. The CBIT management’s decision to jack up the fees from `1.13 lakh to `2 lakh, and the students’ allegations that they were forced to sign the undertaking stating that they would pay the increased fee, caught the attention of the deputy CM who on Thursday said that the students had the government’s support. The Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) too has called the college’s action “illegal” since they have already filed a counter to High Court that allowed them to charge the additional fee.