All India Students’ Federation (AISF) State general secretary, R. Shivaramakrishna has accused the State government of trying to shirk its responsibility of upgrading infrastructure and filling vacant teacher/lecturer posts in the State-run educational institutions.
Leading a demonstration by a group of student activists at the Dharna Chowk here on Friday to protest alleged infrastructure deficiencies, shortage of teachers and other issues, he charged the TRS regime with encouraging private participation in school and higher education sectors.
Stopped by police
The demonstration marked the culmination of the AISF’s district-wide “jeep jatha” to highlight students’ issues and problems plaguing the school and higher education sectors. Earlier, the police prevented the demonstrators from proceeding towards the Collectorate.
The demonstrators squatted on the roadside at the Dharna Chowk in pursuit of their charter of demands.
Addressing the demonstrators, Mr Shivaramakrishna alleged that the government was contemplating to shut around 4,000 State-run schools in the name of rationalisation and kept thousands of vacancies of teachers unfilled in the government schools for long.
The tragic death of Spandana, an inmate of the State-run hostel in Khammam, in a fire mishap in her hostel room on Sunday night exposed the lack of fire safety measures and basic infrastructure facilities in the social welfare hostels, he said.
‘Sanction more funds’
He demanded that the government sanction adequate funds to overhaul the infrastructure and streamline the functioning of the State-run hostels.
The AISF district leaders flayed the government for allegedly failing to set up a university in the district. They opposed the TRS dispensation’s move to allow establishment of private universities and sought the withdrawal of GO No. 17 issued for this purpose.