Several students of University of Hyderabad were detained by Cyberabad police on Sunday afternoon after they staged a protest on the East campus against the clearing of the land, part of the 400 acres of Kancha Gachibowli, which is proposed for auction by the Telangana government to develop multi-infrastructure and IT parks.
According to students, as many as eight earth movers were pressed into service amid heavy police deployment on Sunday. Upon hearing the news, scores of students reached the location shouting slogans against the government. Students have been up in arms against the proposed auction to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem of the campus.
Cyberabad police commissioner Avinash Mohanty said close to 50 students were taken into preventive custody.
“They were taken into preventive custody for causing a lot of nuisance and obstructing TGIIC authorities from carrying on the work. Some of them have assaulted police and depending on circumstances we will be registering cases against some of them,” Mohanty told indianexpress.com.
Kancha Gachibowli is located in the heart of Hyderabad’s IT corridor. Speaking in the Assembly, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy recently claimed that the protests were politically motivated and that “there are no tigers or deer in that area, but some cunning ‘foxes’ are trying to obstruct development”. He alleged that the Opposition was inciting student protests and filing PIL pleas to stall the project.
IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu had clarified in the Assembly that the land meant for the proposed auction did not belong to the university and that the state government was the sole owner of the property.
On Sunday, students claimed that police manhandled them and shoved them into police vans and trucks before moving them to undisclosed locations. “At least 100 protesters have been taken away. We were protesting peacefully inside our campus and police used brute force against students including female students,” a student said.
Story continues below this ad
Students were taken to the Raidurg and Madhapur police stations.
After the protesting students were taken away, the rest of the students gathered near the campus main gate to continue the protest.
“Yesterday, we burnt the effigy of Revanth Reddy and now the authorities are under pressure to take up the work without any delay. They have not waited for demarcation of the land to happen. They have not waited for the next hearing (on April 7) of our PIL to declare Kancha Gachibowli a national park,” said another student, adding that the police locked the main university gate from outside, not allowing any movement or interaction with the media.
Student union vice-president Akash Kumar from the Ambedkar Students Association said, “Even though Telangana government claims the ownership of the land, which we are legally contesting, no survey has been done to demarcate the land. They have brought in bulldozers and started illegally clearing the land. They barricaded the roads within the university. The police lathi-charged us, dragged and manhandled us. There were more police than the students. They have now locked up the university’s gates.”
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
