Osmania on the boil again

The students on Monday tried to gate-crash into the office of the Director General of Police, where written examinations for filling up 200 vacancies for the post of sub inspectors were under way.

The students  also took out  a rally  from the university  campus following the arrest of 20 to 30 agitators in connection with the incident. However, the rally was stopped  by the  police.

As the mob resorted to arson and burnt two buses, heavy police force comprising Andhra Pradesh Special Police (APSP) and Rapid Action Force (RAF) has been deployed around the  campus and students are prevented from going out. The agitators have demanded the release of their leaders, but the local court has rejected their bail plea. The students have also asked the government to stop all the appointments in government departments until the declaration of Hyderabad as a free zone.  

Following students’ unrest in the last two months, the government has enforced Section 144 on the secretariat and Assembly premises and gatherings and dharnas are banned  in these areas. The DGP’s office is situated in this area.

In spite of the protests by  pro-Telangana activists, the  state government has been filling up  many vacancies  in education, health, excise, revenue and police departments  as part of its poll promises to fill up nearly  1.2  lakh vacancies.

While other vacancies are filled up as per  the Presidential order of 1960 providing special consideration for people from  Telangana, vacancies in police  department were considered on a pan-Andhra basis without enforcing reservation.

In last September, students from Osmania University and Telangana leaders had called for a bundh against the conduct of state PSC examinations demanding separate reservations for the region.

While Telangana supporters demanded postponement of the examinations, coastal Andhra leaders had insisted on the conducting of exams as they had already been postponed twice. Later in the month, students  also  disrupted the selection of candidates for the post of teachers and also beat up non-Telengana teachers attending spot-valuation of the papers of BEd students.