Hyderabad: In the early hours of Wednesday, three students from the University of Hyderabad were allegedly placed under house arrest in their campus hostel by the police.
Students alleged that the police entered the university hostels and placed the student activists under house arrest after Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Telangana, gave a call to gherao the assembly.
“Police invaded the students’ privacy by entering the hostels early in the morning. We did not mention that we would take part in the protest organised by the SFI, Telangana, or issue any other protest calls. They just entered the hostels and restricted students’ movement,” said Sreehari RS, general secretary, SFI, HCU.
Meanwhile, a group of students staged a protest against the house arrest on campus, questioning why the administration had permitted the police to enter.
The UoH administration, meanwhile, confirmed that the police were on campus to ‘keep an eye on’ a few students. “At around 9 am, we were informed that the police had entered the campus and were standing guard in front of a hostel. When we asked them about it, they told us that a protest had been called by the SFI, Telangana, and that they were there to keep watch over a few students and ensure that no untoward incidents occurred. They assured us that they would withdraw the police if we could guarantee that the students would not cause any trouble. They left the campus by the afternoon,” an official said.
However, members of the SFI, HCU, said that they have been vocal about the low budget allocation for education and will continue to express their dissent. They demands include increasing the Telangana education budget allocation to 30%, the immediate release of all pending TS-EPASS scholarships, the withdrawal of the DBT mode in TS-EPASS, the timely and adequate disbursement of funds, an end to police interference in university spaces, and an end to hostel arrests.
