OU students stage massive protest

• Tense moments in OU
• 18 students taken into preventive custody and later released on bail
• No stone pelting or lathicharge

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed at the Osmania University (OU) campus on Friday after students were arrested for protesting against the decision of the government to regularise contract employees.

The arrest of the students led to some tense moments in the OU campus with students staging a protest in the afternoon demanding release of the arrested students. Hundreds of students took out a rally from Arts College and staged a road blockade at Tarnaka crossroads, causing traffic jam in the busy area. They marched towards the NCC gate and raised slogans against Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and the Telangana government. They asked the government to withdraw its decision and burnt effigies of the CM and the government. Raising slogans and holding placards, they demanded that the government withdraw its decision

OU police controls situation

“The protest continued for an hour, but was brought under control. There was no stone pelting or lathicharge,” said OU inspector AVR Narasimha Rao.

Police said around 18 students have been taken into preventive custody. They were later released on bail.

Angry students

"We had been protesting for five years hoping that we will get jobs and justice in our state but regularisation of services of contract employees will deprive us of the opportunities," said a girl student.

The TRS government is also under intense pressure from the Telangana students not to regularise the services of contract employees as it will deprive them of government jobs, for which they fought as part of the Telangana agitation since 2009. There are nearly 80,000 contract employees in various departments. It may be recalled that the Chief Minister, who assured regularisation during election meetings, even faced the wrath of Osmania University students when they prevented his helicopter from landing on the campus by pelting stones and footwear.

With that, the Telangana government is planning to regularise only those employees, whose families are residents of Telangana state prior to 1956 along the lines of students eligible for fee reimbursement. In this way, it plans to filter out many employees and pacify the students from Telangana.