NIRMAL: Students of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT), popularly known as IIIT-Basara, continued their protest for the third day even as the State government attempted to broker peace by appointing a Director, Dr Peddapalli Satish Kumar. The decision was announced after Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, Endowment Minister A Indrakaran Reddy and some other officials held a meeting.
Meanwhile, the students found fresh support from various student unions and political parties on Thursday as they continued to press forth their demands of proper infrastructure in the institution, appointment of faculty and a full-time Vice-Chancellor.
Leaders of student unions like TJAC, SFI, AISF and others reached the university, only to be detained by the police and shifted to the Basara police station. Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary K Narayana too visited the IIIT-Basara campus, and was promptly escorted to the police station. BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar will also be visiting the campus on Friday.
Student leaders said that while the move to appoint a Director was fine, they would continue their agitation till each of their demands was met by the government. Criticising Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy for describing the demands of the IIIT-Basara students as “trivial issues”, Narayana said that she was perhaps unaware that students cannot study without facilities and faculty.
“If there is no problem in the institution, why has the government imposed so many restrictions and not allowing us to meet the students in the campus? Is it an educational institution or a central jail,” he asked.