Condemning the police action in Sri Sai Baba National Degree and PG College on Monday, in which one girl student was injured, members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Student Federation of India(SFI), AIDSO and the BJYM organised rallies and rasta roko on Tuesday.
Every major street in the city was blocked from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. even as police personnel were deployed at all major junctions and kept a watch. While some students were arrested at the Saptagiri Circle, some were arrested near the SSBN College where they were headed to stage a dharna.
College closed for two days
The SSBN College announced holiday for two days on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The CPI(M) district leaders held a rasta roko at the beginning of the flyover near Tower Clock Junction, which blocked the traffic for half an hour. Deputy Superintendent of Police G. Veeraghava Reddy and other personnel arrested the agitating students and the CPI(M) activists and shifted them to II Town police station.
Speaking to the media, CPIM district secretary V. Rambhupal said that the Anantapur District National Education (ADNE) Trust closed its Telugu medium school that had a strength of 452 students, many of whom were unable to join any other institution. The SSBN College run by the Trust gave notice to the 2,037 students of degree and 600 of the Intermediate colleges to pay double the fee they were paying as they had surrendered the ‘aided’ status.
The majority of the students come from a very poor background and cannot afford to pay the three-fold increased college fee. The fees reimbursement amount from the government was not being received by many students for the past two years, he alleged.
“The institutions of the Trust were set up by public donations and land/buildings given by philanthropists, but now the managing trustees are trying to profit from it by converting it into a private educational institution,” he observed.
Bharatiya Janata Party and BJYM activists took out a rally and condemned the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government decision to privatise the aided schools and colleges and promised to continue the agitation till action was taken on the police personnel responsible for causing injury to the girl student.
