Senior faculty at Osmania University (OU) are an unhappy lot. With student groups protesting against the State government’s reported move to take over varsity land, the teachers feel it could lead to unrest in the campus again.
“After so many years we thought that classes would be held without any commotion. But a State government we thought would give us more financial support is now bent on taking [over] land,” remarked a senior professor.
Another pointed out that the issue would give student groups an impetus to cause trouble once again. “After Telangana was formed, things finally began to look up. But due to such unnecessary issues, there will be ruckus again,” said a science faculty member.
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Both teachers felt the government should help OU get its academics back on track than invite trouble from student groups.
The refus-al to change?
The VIPs moved out, officials withdrew and so did the media. And the garbage slowly began piling up again. That’s what is happening at several places in the city, after the much-publicised four-day Swachh Hyderabad programme concluded. Public representatives assisted by IAS and IPS officers and supported by junior officials went around the city as part of the initiative. The GHMC claims to have lifted a lot of garbage moved it to dump-yards. However, there remain many colonies that failed to catch the atten-tion of the Swachh teams.
Chief Minster K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced that the initiative will not be a one-time affair. Hope that attempts to ensure sanitation do not go awry where it was taken up, and that areas not covered get some attention.
‘Water politicians’
dry up in city
This year’s scorching heat has exposed the neta s for who they really are. During the last two summers, shelters run by city-based politicians, providing free drinking water to weary passers-by, dotted major thoroughfares.
These centres flaunted life-size posters and cut-outs of their patrons, and rend-ered appreciable service.
However, now that the elections have come and gone, the shelters too have dried up. And despite a crueller summer this year, one cannot find a trace of such ‘political’ drinking-water shelters. Spiritual and voluntary organisations, on the other hand, are continuing the good work without any ulterior motive.
Reporting by Yunus Y. Lasania, T. Lalith Singh, Rahul Devulapalli