Hyderabad, January 10: The Home Minister, Mrs P Sabitha Indra Reddy on Sunday held a special meeting in the Secretariat with the Congress elected representatives from Telangana region and the Police Officials to clear apprehensions among them over the situation in Osmania University.
Bowing to the pressure from the various quarters particularly Telangana Congress leaders, the Home Minister held the meeting in which the Director General of the Police (DGP), Mr Aravind Rao, the Hyderabad City Police Commissioner, Mr A K Khan and the OU Vice Chancellor, Prof Tirupathi Rao participated.
Speaking to the media persons after the meeting, the Congress M P, Mr Manda Jaganadham said that the Home Minister has accepted their three demands – lift the restrictions on the movement of students in OU, no deployment of paramilitary forces in the campus, and lifting of restrictions on media. The Home Minister assured that the restrictions being implemented on the movement of the student would be lifted, he said and added that she has also assured to discuss with the officials about the matter of withdrawal of paramilitary forces from the OU campus. The Home Minister has also reacted positively to the demand of lifting of restrictions, which were clamped on media in the state as an aftermath of Justice B N Srikrishna Committee report, he added.
“We have also requested the government to reopen the closed hostels as the students were facing food problem”, he added.
The Congress M P, Mr G Vivek said that the government’s version was that police were deployed near OU to restore peace and clam. But, the students of OU did not commit any violence to restore normalcy, he pointed out. The police officials informed us that paramilitary forces were deployed at OU Police station for its protection, he said and added that they suggested to the police officials to deploy only additional civil policemen instead of paramilitary forces.
Mr Ponguleti Sudharkar Reddy, MLC regretted that the Government has created a war like situation in OU by imposing restrictions and deploying paramilitary forces in the area. Stating that NBA guidelines were self-regulations suggested by a private agency, he questioned as to how the Government will provide legality to them.
MLA, Mr R Dhamodar Reddy said that the meeting of Congress elected representatives from Telangana would be held in Gandhi on January 11 and discuss about on future course of action.
The Director General of Police (DGP), Mr Aravind Rao said that they have cleared the apprehensions among the elected representatives at the meeting on the situation in OU campus. He made it clear that para military forces were not deployed in O U Campus. The forces were deployed at the OU police station and entrance gate at Shivam road. The police were stopping the mob of students when they were marching towards civilian areas as there was scope for law and order problem.
The Vice Chancellor of OU, Prof. Thirupathi Rao clarified that the closure of the messes of the hostels in OU was not linked with Justice B N Srikrishna Committee report. For Sankranthi festival vacations, the messes remained closed, he added.
NSS