Hyderabad: Scores of workers and students’ activists were taken into custody Monday as the Congress, BJP and various student outfits in Telangana ratcheted up protests over the alleged goof-up in declaration of Intermediate exam results, demanding removal of the state Education Minister.
The Congress, TDP, CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) jointly called for a ‘Maha Dharna’ at the office of Board of Intermediate Education to protest the alleged failures of the BIE and the “negligent” attitude of the TRS government towards the conduct of Intermdiate exams.
Several leaders were put under “house arrest” in parts of the city and across the state, the parties claimed.
The protesters alleged that over 20 students committed suicide since April 18 after the results were declared.
Separately, state BJP president K Laxman launched an indefinite fast outside his party office.
However, he was removed from the place within a few hours and shifted to the state-run Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) by police.
He was shifted “in view of his health”, police said.
Condemning the police action, Laxman announced that he would continue his fast.
Amid the protests, the Telangana High Court directed the Education department and BIE officials to complete the recounting and re-verification of papers by May 8 and submit a report before it in this regard.
The BJP’s demands include sacking of education minister G Jagadeesh Reddy, suspension of BIE secretary, judicial inquiry into the entire episode and compensation to families of students who allegedly committed suicide.
Students’ organisations demanded the Education Minister’s resignation.
The students also made a vain bid to “lay siege” to the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education office here and Pragathi Bhavan, the official residence complex-cum-camp office of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Several protesters were taken into preventive custody, police said.
PTI