OU turns into war zone - 30 Students, 10 Policemen Injured In Violent Clashes During Rally

Osmania University turned into a battle zone on Wednesday with over 1,500 Tcharged students going on the rampage . The students pelted stones on the police, injuring many and went on to damage the university buildings and set ablaze police vehicles parked inside the campus, demanding a public condolence meeting for their martyr , K Venugopal Reddy, the MCA student who was found dead on OU campus on Tuesday. The violence, which lasted for over two hours, left 30 students and 10 police personnel injured and several buildings, including Central Facilities Building and OU Academic Staff College, damaged. TRS MLA E Rajender and his gunman also suffered minor injuries in the violence.

The angry students set ablaze three police vehicles one van and two trucks. One of the vehicles was carrying food for the police personnel deployed on the campus. The police resorted to lathicharge in which 30 students were injured and they were shifted to nearby hospitals. The police used water cannons, fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets in their attempt to control the students who grew violent by the minute. All hell broke loose when over 600 students led by OU Joint Action Committee (JAC) and JAC of political parties tried to take a rally around 10.30 am carrying the body of Venugopal Reddy from Arts College to Gunpark, the Telangana martyrs memorial in front of the state Assembly. The students were not able to cross the heavy police cordon for over 45 minutes. The rally then turned violent when the students were stopped at the Ladies Hostel from going towards the OU main gate. At this point, about 20 girl students who joined the protesters at the hostel, threw chappals at the police triggering chaos. Sensing trouble, the Rapid Action Force personnel resorted to lathicharge to disperse the mob.

The RAF personnel fired around 50 rounds of tear gas shells and 10 rubber bullets to disperse the students . One of the students, Satyanarayana , was seriously injured in the incident. However, city police commissioner B Prasada Rao maintained that only a minimal force was used on students.
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Brace up for another bandh today
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Even as the Telangana bandh called by the Osmania University students JAC on Wednesday was total barring the violence on the campus, the Telangana JAC of political parties called for yet another bandh on Thursday in protest against what they called unwarranted police action against the students. We have given a bandh call in the entire Telangana region on Thursday in protest against the police action on OU campus on Wednesday. Only the vehicular traffic including public and private buses going for the Sammakka Sarakka jatara in Warangal district will be exempted from the bandh, Telangana political parties JAC convenor M Kodandaram told the media after an emergency steering committee meeting here on Wednesday evening.

He also demanded that Rajya Sabha MP K V P Ramachandra Rao, who is the state adviser on public safety and security, resign owning moral responsibility for the violent incidents on the OU campus. The JAC also urged the people not to take part in programmes organised by the government . It also demanded that the hostels closed by the authorities in campuses across the region be reopened immediately. Wednesdays bandh across the region was total with the public transport off the roads and most business establishments and educational institutions preferring to shut down.

The police had to lathicharge students trying to attack the residences of minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Congress MLA Konda Surekha in Warangal, at Nagole in Cyberabad and at Nakrekal in Nalgonda district when protesters pelted stones on the police convoy carrying the body of Venugopal Reddy whose suicide triggered the fresh bout of unrest. The students also attacked public and private vehicles. In all, 634 persons were taken into custody.

Meanwhile, pressure continued to mount on the leaders of all political parties from Telangana with TRS, BJP and Telangana PRP legislators continuing to insist on assembly speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy accepting their resignations. TDP, which had said on Tuesday that its 39 MLAs would press for the acceptance of their resignations , seemed to have developed cold feet on Wednesday and kept mum. With the heat building up on them from several quarters quit, Congress leaders decided to rush to Delhi on Thursday and seek a way out of their predicament from the party high command. We will have no option but to seek the announcement of a road map for the creation of Telangana, said one Congress leader.

Following the unrest, the meeting of all district SPs scheduled for Thursday has been put off.
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Venu wanted to highlight T issue A Top Performer In All Fields, He Showed Active Interest In Politics Since Childhood
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K Venugopal Reddy, the MCA student from Nalgonda who allegedly committed suicide for the T cause on Tuesday, was politically inclined right from his school days. Those close to him say that the 23-year-old took up politics after his father, Koti Reddy , an active Congressman shifted to Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) when the party was formed in 2001. As a young boy, Venugopal is believed to have accompanied his father to several camps conducted by Gaddar the revolutionary balladeer.

In fact, following his demise, his mother said how she was proud that her son laid his life for Telangana. Since childhood, Venugopal had developed an interest in politics and gave his soul to the Telangana cause, said a close family member adding, He was overtly concerned about the discrimination against the Telangana region and always wanted to do something path-breaking to highlight this issue. Though Venugopal had been actively participating in the T movement, that he could commit suicide has come as a complete shock to those who knew him. Apart from the family, even Venugopals friends and professors from the Lalitha Degree and PG College, where he studied, could not initially believe that he could end his life.

Venugopal was a born leader. He came across as a very strong person who took up social causes and even motivated others to be a part of it. It is hard to believe that someone like him could take such a step, said a senior official of the college who then went on to laud the final-year MCA student for his sincerity towards academics . He was among the top performers in his class every year. He was picked by several MNCs during the campus interview and was set to join Mahindra Satyam soon, the official said. But such achievements did not come easy. Being born into a family of poor agriculturalists hailing from the Dosapadu village in Nalgonda district, Venugopals academic journey was one filled with struggles. Some sources say that his parents, Koti Reddy and Laxmamma, had to even sell off their land (about 1.5 acres) to support his and his elder brother, Srinivas Reddys education . The two went to a modest school in Suryapet, close to their village, before heading to Hyderabad for higher education.

Venugopals impressive grades, all through school days, won him a free seat in Lalitha College while Srinivas, after acquiring a MSc degree, was picked by the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) where he is now serving as a senior research fellow. Venugopal was not only bright in his studies but was also very enthusiastic when it came to extra-curricular activities. There was not a single event in the college that he did not participate , said a professor from the college adding, We have also heard that the two brothers often organised programmes in their village to educate people and spread awareness about various issues.

Sources close to Venugopal claim that his death has meant a great loss not only for his parents but a graver one for the T movement , which is alive because of such activism.
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WITHDRAW POLICE FROM OU: HARISH - T leaders condemn police lathicharge
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TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday alleged that the government had conspired to turn the peaceful Telangana movement into a violent agitation by instigating students in the university. He condemned the police lathi charge at Osmania University which resulted in injuries for several students. Rao said police resorted to atrocious and horrible act of lathicharge, bursting of tear gas shells and fired rubber bullets against students while they were trying to take out a funeral procession of K Venugopal Reddy who committed suicide on Tuesday.

He said in the wake of the need to intensify the T agitation , he has decided to call off his visit to Medaram in Warangal district where Sammakka-Saarakka jatara (tribal festival) was being celebrated . The police action came in for criticism from other party leaders like N Janardhan Reddy and T Devender Goud (TDP), R Damodar Reddy (Congress ) and others. On the other hand, a TRS delegation led by party MLA T Harish Rao met home minister P Sabita Indra Reddy and demanded that police be withdrawn from the university campus. Alleging that police had shown over enthusiasm, the TRS leaders demanded a judicial probe into the lathi charge and subsequent firing on the students.

Harish Rao later told media that he had demanded that the police officers responsible for all that happened at Osmania University be shifted. The Home minister assured the TRS leaders that she will look into the complaints given by them. She also appealed to the students to stop committing suicides since the Centre had assured that it would take necessary measures for creating separate state.
Meanwhile, Telangana vimochana samithi (TVS) leader and MLC K Dilip Kumar, met legislative council chairman A Chakrapani and urged him to accept his resignation.

TDP leader N Janardhan Reddy speaking at the venue of relay hunger strike condemned police action on students and said it was high time to unite all Telangana forces and continue their fight till separate T state was formed.
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SUSHMA SWARAJ TO ATTEND MEET - T Vidyarthi Ranabheri on Jan 23
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The state BJP on Wednesday decided to organise Telangana Vidyarthi Ranabheri on January 23 which will be attended by the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj. This meeting is being organised by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in support of separate Telangana state. According to senior party leader N Indrasen Reddy, the BJP which has been spearheading the movement for separate state for decades was extending its full support to JAC in taking the issue forward and was ready to support the UPA government if it moves a bill in the Parliament. ABVP secretary K Raju said that lakhs of students would attend the Vidhyarthi Ranabheri meeting. The ABVP has sought police permission for the meeting. Raju expressed hope that the police would not object to it. He alleged that few political leaders were trying to sidetrack the T movement for selfish gains.
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Bandh in T districts passes off peacefully
Cell Tower Protests Staged In Several Towns
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Barring minor incidents, the bandh was peaceful and total in the ten districts of Telangana on Wednesday. There were some tense moments at major irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiahs residence at Ramnagar in Warangal when hundreds of students and BJP activists protested, demanding the resignation of the minister. Earlier, Kakatiya University JAC students took out a massive rally from their campus to former minister Konda Surekhas residence and tried to gatecrash into the house, demanding that she join the movement.

In Karimnagar district no untoward incident was reported and shops and establishments remained closed in response to the bandh call by Telangana JAC. Police made heavy security arrangements at all important junctions in the town. Mild tension prevailed in Machareddy mandal headquarters in Nizamabad district when two students scaled a cell tower after dousing themselves with kerosene and tried to set themselves ablaze in protest against police lathicharge on OU students. In a similar incident, 12 students scaled a cell tower in Vidhyanagar in Kamareddy town.

Meanwhile, Transco ADA, Subrahmanyam was attacked by residents of Bibipet village in Domakonda mandal when he tried to lodge a complaint against them for detaining Transco staff in the village. While agitating people damaged four autorikshaws in Rudrur village of Varni mandal, women attacked belt shop in Mancherial town and a wine shop in Adilabad district headquarters. On the other hand, former Nizamabad MP M Narayana Reddy filed a public interest litigation seeking the high court to direct Speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy to accept the resignations tendered by the MLAs from Telangana region.

Telangana University students staged a rasta roko at Nagepur gate on national Highway 7 forcing vehicular traffic to come to a halt for about one hour. Later, they undertook a padayatra from the university to Basara Saraswathi temple in Adilabad district . TRS district vice-president Chandrasekhar lodged a complaint asking Jukkal police to register a cheating case against AICC president Sonia Gandhi who betrayed Telangana people by promising a separate state. Similar complaints were lodged with Kamareddy police to trace out the whereabouts of Zaheerabad MP Suresh Shetkar and Nizamabad ZP chairman K Venkatramana Reddy.
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(source : toi)