Leaders, cutting across party lines, have expressed their solidarity with the students of Fathima Institute of Medical Sciences (FIMS), who have been protesting at the Dharna Chowk here for the last several days.
The students, who were forced to discontinue their first year MBBS course in the college because the MCI cancelled its recognition to the 2105-16 batch, had been staging dharna on a daily basis at the venue. Over a dozen corporators of the YSRCP, who were on a day-long hunger strike in the adjoining slot at Dharna Chowk, surprised everyone by visiting the students and raising slogans against the government.
Former MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar, who was in the city to participate in another programme, visited the camp of the students and expressed his solidarity with the striking students. “The future of the students is at stake. Everyone is given the impression that the problem has been resolved. I have been shown a video in which Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, at the time of the Nandyal byelection, assured the students that the problem would be resolved. But that does not seem to be the case. We will take it to its logical end,” he said.
APCC general secretary and advocate V. Gurunadham said the problem could be resolved if the government passed an ordinance.
Karnataka, Kerala, and Punjab were able to do something similar by issuing an ordinance.
If that was not possible, the State and Central governments should prevail on the MCI to grant permission to the college to take these students, he said.
YSR Congress leader and former MLA Malladi Vishnu, Congress leaders K. Sivaji, Akula Srinivas Kumar, and Sunkara Padmasri visited the camp and expressed their support with the agitating students.
