Ongole: Engineering student commits suicide

Ongole: An engineering second-year student of Ongole committed suicide on Friday night.

Her family members, college mates and student organisations in the town alleged that the pressure for fees by the college management was the reason for her death, but the college principal calls it bad propaganda against them and they were not pressurising anyone.

Papisetty Tejaswini of Godugupalem was a second-year student at QIS College of Engineering and Technology in Ongole.

She paid her college and exam fees on Friday afternoon and reportedly committed suicide later in the night. Her family members and college mates alleged that the college management was pressuring the students to pay the fees. They said that Tejaswini was humiliated and she was not allowed to board the college bus as she didn't pay the fee last week.

She demanded her parents to pay the fees at any cost and they did it by taking a loan at a hefty interest. He family members said that after she returned from the college on Friday, they discussed the loan burden on the family but didn't expect that Tejaswini would take the extreme step.

The college mates of Tejaswini, and members of the SFI, PDSU, DYFI and AISF along with local YSRCP leaders staged a protest in front of the college and at RDO office on Saturday. They alleged that many students of the college were facing the insults from the college management for not paying the fees.

The student leaders pointed out that though the government will clear the fees under fee reimbursement scheme, the management is demanding them to pay now and insulting them for not paying.

They said that the management also warned that they would not allow the people who didn't pay the college fees to pay the exam fees and allow them for the exams.