Telangana: Protesting Nizam college students claim senior officer threatened them

The girl students of undergraduate courses in Nizam college in Hyderabad have been demanding hostel facilities since October 28.
Nizam college students protesting
Nizam college students protesting
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Four undergraduate girl students who were part of a group demanding hostel facilities in Nizam college, Hyderabad were allegedly threatened with police cases by a senior officer with the Telangana Education Department on Thursday, November 10. The incident is said to have occurred when the four girls were talking with Navin Mittal, Telangana’s Commissioner of Technical and Collegiate Education, about providing hostel facilities for undergraduate girl students of Nizam college. While the students began their protest on October 28, they were asked for five days' time from the management to resolve the issue. As they failed to get a response from the management even after five days, they began to protest again on November 4.

At present, hostel facilities are being provided only to postgraduate students of the college. On November 8, Minister KT Rama Rao in a tweet asked the Education Minister to address the issue as a girls hostel had already been built and handed over to the college. Following this, the students had a meeting with the Commissioner. Incidentally, the students said that they had requested the hostel facility from KT Rama Rao for undergraduate students, but it was given to postgraduate students.

One of the four students, Sravani speaking to TNM, narrated, “Initially, we were 11 students, but only four people were called inside to speak with him. We put forward our demand for a full hostel facility as that was what was promised to us. However, Navin Mittal said that the hostel facility was allotted to only postgraduate students. When the batches of undergraduate students have been protesting for hostel facilities for the last five years, we did not understand why the facility was being given only to postgraduate students.”

She further said that the undergraduate students were insistent on getting hostel facilities as there were more than 600 students who hailed from other villages and towns. “He tried to convince us with the 50% allotment, but other protesting students did not accept the offer. When we conveyed the same, Navin Mittal became annoyed and said, ‘You do what you want and we will do what we have to do.’” The student further alleged that the Commissioner threatened to file a police case against them for protesting.

Another student, Aishwarya from Warangal said that she had been paying Rs 6,000 per month for private hostels. “I work part-time to pay my hostel fees and food expenses. If we had so much money, we would join a private institute instead of a government college. We were promised a hostel facility when we joined, but now I'm in my final year, But I still haven't got a hostel room and a lot of money is being spent on food, travel and accommodation,” she said.

The protesting students also spoke to Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy on the morning of November 11. The Minister took to Twitter and said that the government had resolved the issue and had released a government order stating 50% of the hostel facility would be allotted to undergraduate students while the other 50% to be allotted to postgraduate students. 

Students of Nizam college denied that the issue had been resolved and said the tweet was false. “We never agreed with the Education Minister or Navin Mittal. We said we would only think about it. But they have tweeted saying as if we have agreed. We are tweeting against it,” said a student.

Navin Mittal was unavailable for comment. This story will be updated, if he responds.

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