Hyderabad, December 10: It’s exactly two years since the Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, made the statement on Telan-gana that led to renewed hopes that the state would be formed.
Many agitations followed, and the most violent and frequent strikes were those spearheaded by students of Osmania University.
The OU campus became the centre of T-agitation, and the university resembled a war zone at that time, and classes and examinations were constantly disrupted.
It’s a very different picture today. Peace has returned and students are busy preparing for various competitive exams.
The library, the Saraswathi temple and the open lawns of the campus are full of students studying hard for their exams. The university has built a reading hall that will remain open 24×7, since the library is open for only 12 hours.
Government jobs are still highly coveted and this is what is impelling students to take to their books rather than to politics.
The state government plans to issue notifications to fill 1.16 lakh posts in its various departments this month. APPSC has just issued Group-I notification and is scheduled to issue Group-II and IV notifications in January and February.
The improved performance of OU students in the recent Group-I, II and SI recruitment exams has also inspired students to aim for competitive exams.
The students themselves admit there is a big change between December 2009 and December 2011. “Several of the student leaders are still in jail. Telangana is still important for us. But, we also want to build our careers. With a series of recruitment notifications lining up this month, it’s time to prepare well,” said Mr Jagadeesh, a Ph.D scholar.