Hyderabad, December 05: In a gesture to express their solidarity with the Joint Action Committee of OU students, the families of OU professors on Friday assured that they would take care of them and that they need not worry even if their hostel mess is shut down by the University authorities.
“You fight for Telangana, we will take care of you,’’ they asserted. The protests entered its sixth-day even as the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is not part of the JAC, intensified its agitations inside and outside the campus. Nearly a hundred women folk, family members of the professors, marched from their quarters to the Arts College on Friday to extend their support to the students. “Separate statehood is our priority. Don’t worry about the arm twisting tactics (closure of messes) of the authorities.
Even if they close down the messes we are here to take care of you,” the women assured the students.
Balladeer Gadar and academician and MLC Chukka Ramaiah were the others who extended their support to the students.
Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party’s student wing, Telugu Nadu Students Federation (TNSF) extended their support to the agitation for separate Telangana. The JAC held a mass ‘funeral’ procession of Congress MLAs and MPs belonging to the Telangana region and later burnt their effigies. The effigies of MIM legislators, Congress chief D Srinvias and TDP legislators were also burnt as a protest.
Earlier, students rolled shirtless on the ground from the B-Hostel to the Arts College as a mark of protest.
Four students of Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, which was rechristened as Komaram Bheem Telugu University by the students, also started a relay hunger strike at the NCC gate.
The students hung effigies of TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu and CPM state secretary B V Raghavulu at the main entrance of the University for not taking a firm stand on separate Telangana. ABVP activists too targeted the TDP chief and burnt his effigy at the Tarnaka crossroads and also enforced a bandh in the area. “At a time when Telangana is boiling over the separate statehood issue, Chandrababu Naidu is talking about Obulapuram mining issue which shows that his non-committal over the issue,” ABVP OU student leader Kadiam Raju said.
ABVP students also burnt the effigy of higher education minister D Sridhar Babu for the Government’s decision to close down the colleges.
The ABVP also gave an educational institution bandh call on December 7 and will organise ‘Chalo Hyderabad’ on December 17. Meanwhile, students laid siege to Congress MP V Hanumantha Rao and Qutbullapur MLA K Srisailam Goud’s residences demanding that they take initiative in passing a separate Telangana Bill. Hanumantha Rao assured that he would take up the issue with the Centre and with the Congress high command on Monday.
The pro-Telangana activists also closed down schools in Habsiguda, Nacharam, Tarnaka and L B Nagar areas. Late in the night, students lighted hundreds of candles as a mark of respect to the students who have sacrificed their lives for the cause of separate Telangana.
ABVP activists also took out a candle light rally from Shivaji Statue to Hyderabad Public School in Ramanthapur.
-Agencies