Hyderabad: In a blatant violation of Supreme Court guidelines, and demonstrating once again the lack of tolerance of legitimate dissent, Rajendranagar police stormed into the women’s hostel of Konda Lakshman Horticulture University at 3 am on Wednesday, when the women were asleep, and hauled them to the police station for questioning.
The girls were released on Wednesday from the Rajendranagar Nagar Police station, while the boys were released in the evening. The police issued notices to 40 students. Students allege that the police threatened them to stop the strike. University students have been agitating for the past 30 days demanding immediate recruitment of horticulture officers and horticulture extension officers.
C.H. Sharmila, studying for BSc Horticulture, said, “It was a rude shock when cops entered our hostels at midnight without any intimation and knocked on our doors. We were scared to open our doors but were forced to do so. One of the constables slapped Archana, a PG first year student.”
As she says, “we were just protesting for our rights in the campus, demanding immediate recruitment of horticulture officers and horticulture extension officers. Instead of fulfilling our demands, the government arrested us for fighting for our rights.” Supreme Court directions stipulate that women cannot be arrested after sunset or before sunrise, so the action of the police is an open violation, says senior advocate B. Chandrasen Reddy.
“No police can arrest any woman between 6 pm and 6 am - it is a violation of the law for police officials to arrest the girl students at midnight. Even if women constables came along with the male cops they are not supposed to arrest women at night. Police can only arrest a woman if she has committed a very serious crime, that too with a written permit from the concerned magistrate. The girls of the University who were arrested and their parents can file a petition against the cops for arresting them at night,” he said. Putta Suman, a student of BSc Horticulture, said that, “the protest was in its 30th day and a hunger strike was on for four days. Even other students from Mojerla campus were detained by the police.”
K. Ganga Reddy, ACP Rajendra Nagar, justifies the police presence on the campus, and their action, by saying: “On the request of the University authorities we deployed police force in the University. We detained 50 students on Wednesday from Sangareddy campus of Horticulture University and released them after issuing notices to 41 of them.We have identified a few more students who encouraged the students to go on hunger strike so we will issue notices to them as well. We have also detained students participating in the hunger strike and admitted them to hospital.”but we have not detained any girl students from the University." What does this mean? Did they take the girls away at night or not? What is the charge? What are the notices for? Is being on hunger strike an offence?
It seems that going on strike has suddenly become a crime instead of a right. For the university to call in the police is in itself reprehensible, and for the police to comply, for no good reason, is a sign of the growing high-handedness of the forces of law and order.
Students seek hiring of skilled staff at field level
Students of Sri Konda Laxman Telangana Horticulture University have been protesting for past 30 days demanding recruitment of horticulture officials (HOs) and horticulture extension officials (HEOs). The Telangana government has failed to recognise the horticulture sector in the state, they said. There is lot of requirement of skilled manpower at field level, but till date, the government has not recruited any HEO, they said.
R. Srinivas, a student from the university, said, “Most of the present field-level staff working in horticulture sector are general degree holders and from departments like sericulture. The Agriculture department has recruited 120 AOs and 1,311 AEOs and the veterinary department has recruited 150 veterinary surgeons but the horticulture department has got just 73 HOs.”
TD working president A. Revanth Reddy was detained at Rajendranagar by the police on Wednesday and was taken to Shamshabad Rural Police station, when he called for hunger-till-death strike protesting against detaining of students.
