Tension at CBIT as cops cane students

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed at the Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) on Monday following the lathi-charge of the students, who were protesting demanding the management to roll back the fee hike decision for the last five days.

The students alleged that their repeated requests to the management to roll back the fee hike fell on deaf ears. Following this, hundreds of students, joined by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Students Federation of India, BVP, AIDSO and other student organisations, have stepped up their agitation to press for their demands.

Trouble began when the ABVP activists tried to force their way into the principal’s chambers forcing police intervention to prevent them. This ended up in a scuffle between the students and the police. Further, the students, who had vandalised the furniture, staged a dharna in the principal chambers. It was against this backdrop, the police resorted to a mild lathi-charge to prevent the situation from further escalation.

Meanwhile, the college has declared a week’s holiday. Responding to the students, college Principal P Ravinder Reddy said the issue would be taken to the notice of the management and a solution would be found. Earlier in the morning, parents and the students organisations joined the protesting students of the college and took out a rally from Gandipet to the CBIT campus. Speaking to the media, ABVP Greater Hyderabad City Secretary J Dileep charged the CBIT management of not considering the just demands of the students.

He said the student body will join with all other organisations in continuing the protest until the college takes back its decision of fee hike. Demanding the government to appoint a commission headed by a senior IAS official to look into the issues about Category B admissions, fee hike issue in the CBIT, the ABVP also sought the government to file criminal charges against the management for forcing the students to forge their parent’s signatures on the affidavits.