RGUKT / IIIT Basara Students Continue Protest For Third Day

Students of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT) in Basara (IIIT Basar) continued their protest for a third consecutive day today, demanding the immediate resolution of their problems.

The students boycotted classes and staged a sit-in at the second gate of the campus, asking the government to address their 12 demands.

The main demands of the agitating students are the appointment of a full-fledged vice-chancellor, the filling up of vacancies, laptops/desktops and projectors in all classrooms, uniforms, shoes, beds in hostel rooms, revival of PUC blocks and hostels, Internet, electricity and plumbing, immediate repair to the fans damaged in the classrooms, and filling of PED and PET posts.

The police have been highly pro-active in handling the situation. Early in the morning, they erected barricades in front of the academic block and other parts of the institution, preventing the students from staging a sit-in. They police also imposed restrictions on the movement of civilians and the media on the campus. No one was permitted to reach the spot of the agitation and interact with the students.

Scores of family members of students however still arrived at the gate to take part in the agitation and extend their solidarity with the protest. They were not allowed to enter the premises of the varsity by the police, and some of them were arrested and housed in the Basar police station.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy appealed to the agitating students to call off their stir and assured them that the State government was ready to adress all their concerns.

The students however expressed dissatisfaction over Reddy's remarks terming their problems as silly.

"It is very unfair to make derogatory remarks sitting in Hyderabad. The Education Minister should come to the campus and get to know the real problems being faced by us. Moreover, the attitude of the district Collector Musharraf Ali Farooqui is also not fair. He summoned students for a discussion and threatened us with severe consequences," an agitating student alleged.

Also, the State government appointed Prof. Satish Kumar as the new director of the university and issued orders in this regard.