A day after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao proposed to take 11 acres of the Osmania University for constructing houses to the poor people of Parsigutta, the opposition parties and the OUJAC came out strongly against the proposal. Students of Osmania University led by OUJAC leader P Kailash Neta and nearly 20 others managed to enter the Secretariat and staged a protest in front of the Samatha block which houses the chief minister’s office. Raising slogans against KCR, the students staged a sit-in. Taken aback by the protest inside the high security Secretariat, police bodily lifted the agitating students, bundled them into vehicles and shifted them to the police station. It is learnt that the OUJAC leaders and students managed to enter through the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat entrance. Speaking on the occasion, Kailash said they will not allow a single acre of OU land to be used for other purposes. “KCR had been telling that thousands of acres of land had been taken away by Andhra industrialists and others illegally. Why not take them back and construct houses for the poor in those lands?’’ Kailash questioned. The OUJAC was of the opinion that the university is in the process of expansion and in such a scenario, the administration needs land. The main opposition, Congress, also took strong exception to Rao’s proposal. Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that the Chief Minister appears to be suffering from ‘open land phobia.’ “Wherever he sees an open land, he comes out with some construction plans. In the name of weaker section housing, KCR wants to hand over land to realtors for personal gains,’’ he alleged. Established in 1918, the Osmania University is spread over a sprawling area of nearly 1,600 acres.
