Hyderabad: Tension in Osmania University as ABVP protests against fee hike

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed at the administrative building of Osmania University following members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staging a protest against the decision to hike fee of various courses. Police had a tough time in controlling the protesting members who tried to lay siege to the vice-chancellor's office.

The protesters alleged that the State universities were meant to provide quality education, but the decision to hike fee leads to the commodification of education. Hundreds of students gathered at the administrative building of the OU and charged that the newly-appointed vice-chancellors boasted to deliver a lot, but have ended up imposing the government's agenda on students with manifold hike in fee.

They found that increasing fee of engineering, pharmacy and post-graduate courses in Osmania University, Mahatma Gandhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) as unjustified.

They said that fee for MA in Arts and Social Science regular courses have been increased from Rs 2,800 to Rs 14,000, and the fee for the self-finance courses have been increased from Rs 3,800 to Rs 21,000. Similarly, the fee for M.Com regular has been fixed at Rs 30,000, MBA at Rs 35,000 and MSc science stream course fee has been increased from Rs 3,800 to Rs 20,490. The self-finance course fee in the same stream has gone up to Rs 35,000, they said.

In the engineering stream, the course fee has gone up from Rs 18,000 to Rs 35,000 and self-finance fee to Rs 75,000. Course fee for BTech in Artificial Intelligence has been pegged at Rs 1.2 lakh.

Demanding the rollback and resolving the problems faced by the students in hostels besides the appointment of vacant faculty positions, the protesters tried to block the V-C's office. The protesting students warned that they would intensify agitation if the university authorities failed to roll back the fee hike.

Meanwhile, police took the protesting ABVP members into custody and sent them to the Amberpet police station.

ABVP central working committee member P Srihari, OU wing convenor and state joint secretary M Suman Shankar, national executive members Srisailam and Veeramalla, state joint secretary Jeevan, Kamla Suresh, technical cell convener Tota Srinu, Varun, Sai, Amarnath were among those who took part in the protest.