Hyderabad, December 09: Osmania University students vowed to continue their agitation for a separate Telangana even as the government closed all hostels in the campus on Tuesday.
The students said they would continue to stay in the campus and would go ahead with their agitation from the Arts College itself even as special police forces kept a vigil in the campus.
With the ‘Chalo Assembly’ on December 10, OU authorities on Tuesday announced that the hostels and messes would be closed.
Pro-Telangana activists, professors and student activists have assured the agitating students that they would take care of them and that the latter need not worry about food and shelter.
By Tuesday evening, the university authorities closed down the hostel messes and the students were forced to fend for themselves for the night.
“By Wednesday, we will make our own arrangements,” Ramesh, a member of the students Joint Action Committee (JAC) said. The JAC leaders are planning to make arrangements for food for the 1,000-odd students left in the hostel from Wednesday morning.
Sources said the students had decided not to take up any violent protests as the police might arrest them. “They are trying to incite us so that we indulge in violence and subsequently arrest us,” a JAC member said.
Meanwhile, lecturers and professors assured their students that they would provide food. “They can’t drive us out of our quarters. We will provide you with food.
You fight for a separate Telangana,” Professor M Andamma of Telugu Department in the university told the students.
She also handed over Rs 50,000 sent by her son, Vijay Bhaskar, who stays in the US, for the JAC agitation.
Meanwhile, a group of students from Lalaguda announced that they would provide food for nearly 400 students everyday and asked the students to continue their agitation.
The Telangana Junior Doctors Association of Gandhi Hospital have also extended their support to the JAC. They have set up a medical camp at the Arts College.
Students of the AP Study Circle which was re-christened TG (Telangana) Study Circle took out a rally to the Arts College and extended their support for a separate Telangana. Students of Potti Sriramulu a.k.a Komaram Bheem Telugu University took out a rally in the campus and burnt an effigy of the government.
Students also observed a two-minute silence as a mark of protest against Narasimha’s death. The 66-year-old died on Tuesday due to the injuries sustained in the lathicharge by police in Manikeshwar Nagar on Wednesday.
Outside the campus, activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) blocked the road in front of the Old MLA quarters at Hyderguda at the time when legislators were about to proceed to the State Assembly.
Nearly 50 ABVP activists squatted on the road opposite the quarters and raised slogans demanding that the legislators pass a resolution for a separate Telangana.
Police took the agitating activists into preventive custody and later let them off.
Elsewhere, unidentified miscreants set ablaze an abandoned jeep inside the tehsildar office at Qutbullapur late on Monday night.At L B Nagar, activists of Telugu Nadu Students Federation took out a rally demanding a separate Telangana.
Meanwhile, the NCC Gate, which was closed since November 29 was opened on Tuesday for the public. Though the gate was opened, only a few vehicles passed through the road.
–Agencies