In a novel demonstration, members of the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural Students Association (APASA) stood in hip-deep water at the Durga Bathing Ghat here on Friday demanding that the government bring back the GO 64, which permitted graduates from agricultural colleges not having ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) recognition to get jobs in the Agriculture Department.
The State government cancelled the GO as a large number of agriculture graduates opposed it.
The students, including a few girls, said that they were doing the ‘Jala Deeksha’ asking goddess Kanakadurga to prevail on the State government to restore the G.O.
The Hyderabad High Court in response to a writ petition even passed an interim order suspending GO 64, last month. When approached by students opposing the GO., Jena Sena supremo Pawan Kalyan made a public statement demanding that the GO be scrapped and that he would support the agitation of the students. The APASA leaders said that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research was an institute that was concerned with research and not education standards.
An agriculture council on the lines of the the Medical Council of India was required to evaluate agricultural colleges, but there was no such institute and demanded that the government constitute one. There were over 30,000 Telugus studying in good agricultural colleges that were not recognised by the ICAR. All of them would lose eligibility to apply for the government jobs, they said.
Coming down heavily on the Jana Sena leader, the APASA leaders said that he should not have extended support to the students who approached him without making a thorough study and demanded that he withdraw his statement.
