Osmania University students continue protest over land row

Tension prevailed around Osmania University campus here for the second day on Tuesday as students, protesting against alleged encroachments on the university land, tried to attack a petrol bunk.

Police arrested the students, who were also protesting the recent statement by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao that houses for the poor would be constructed on the university land.

A day after attacking a hotel, belonging to a legislator of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) at Habsiguda, the students under the aegis of Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika (TVV), an apex body of various student groups, organised a rally from Arts College to Tarnaka.

Raising anti-government slogans and demanding protection of university land, they tried to barge into a petrol bunk. Police swung into action to disperse the students and arrested 20 of them.

ABVP and other student groups have been staging protests for the last few days to condemn the chief minister's announcement to construct houses for the poor on 11 acres of university land lying unused.

Demanding that the government drop the housing plan and also give back to the university the encroached land, Telangana Unemployed Students' Joint Action Committee (JAC) has decided to hold a public meeting on June 1.

It has also called for a boycott of Telangana formation day celebrations on June 2.

Meanwhile, students staged a protest in Nizamabad town on Tuesday to condemn the arrests of Osmania University students.

The police on Monday had arrested 17 students and filed criminal cases against nine of them in connection with an attack on a hotel.