HYDERABAD: Osmania University Students’ Joint Action Committee and a group of Congress leaders met Governor ESL Narasimhan on Saturday and urged him to protect the varsity lands.
The students and leaders presented a memorandum to the Governor. The move comes in the wake of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision to takeover 11 acres of OU for constructing houses to the poor.
“No one is against the Chief Minister constructing houses to the poor. But he should not divert university lands for the purpose. University lands have to be protected for further expansion. Instead of diverting university lands, the government should reclaim encroached lands and lands from land grabbers,” said Dasoju Shravan Kumar, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) spokesperson.
“Why does Emaar golf course need so much land? Why cannot KCR reclaim lands from N Convention Centre, Annapurna Studios and Ramoji Film City, like he said he would during the Telangana agitation? KCR is unnecessarily trying to create a rift between the poor and the OU students. This is nothing but a ploy to stay in the news and done keeping in view the GHMC elections,” alleged Shravan Kumar.
OU Students’ JAC chairman S Charan Koushik Yadav said it was the Nizam who had allocated thousands of acres and established the university to create the most serene academic environment with flora and fauna on a par with international standards. As it is mostly poor students who study in OU, government should protect lands at any cost, he demanded.