ADILABAD: Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan’s August 7 visit to IIIT Basar seems to have added to the problems of its students. There has been a noticeable increase in surveillance by the police while harassment of students has also increased significantly. The students have been on an agitation for a speedy implementation of the 12 demands they have put forth to the management.
The reported strained relations between the governor and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao may have its impact in the IIIT campus at Basar and add to the tensions of the students.
Her visit to the institute assumed political significance as neither Rao nor any minister visited the campus despite innumerable pleas by the students.
Their main demands of appointing a regular vice-chancellor and changing the mess contractors have been tossed out. Students complain that there has been no improvement in the quality of food that is served to them. There are strong allegations that the police and authorities have developed an ‘informant network’ to tackle the situation inside the campus.
It seems that the authorities were waiting for an appropriate time to ‘fix’ the students, who were spearheading the agitation and trying to expose the state government’s failures in providing them with basic amenities.
Basar police registered cases against four students for ‘breaking the window panes’ of a police vehicle after a student Suresh Rathod committed suicide in his hostel room on August 23.
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