Students Intensify Protests At CBIT, Caned By Cops

The tension on the Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology campus escalated on Monday as ABVP activists as well as students clashed with the cops on the campus.

CBIT, the first private engineering college in the Telangana region, had recently hiked the fee for first year and second year students from Rs 1.2 lakhs to Rs 2 lakhs, which has led to massive protests by the students of the college.

Relenting, the college had on December 9 issued a circular in which it said that the students who couldn't afford to pay the hiked fee should submit a request to the respective heads for scholarships to be adjusted against the increased fee.

However, no clarity was given on whether the scholarships would cover the entire enhanced fee or a part of it. And on Monday, the enraged students took the protests a step further when the college management again failed to respond to their plea of rolling back the hiked fee structure.

Extending their support to the college students, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists barged into the principal's chamber and staged a sit-in. And when the police intervened and tried to pacify the agitating ABVP activists, it resulted in a clash between them.

The irate students resorted to vandalism and destroyed the furniture in the college. In retaliation, the police caned the students to bring the situation under control.

Later, the college management declared holidays for a week, and the principal assured the agitating students that he would talk to the management and try to reach a solution.