KTR backs polytechnic students opposing GO 97, promises to raise concerns in Assembly
BRS working president KT Rama Rao received petitions from Mahatma Gandhi University students and Nalgonda Government Polytechnic College representatives on Thursday, as he stopped near the university on his way to a farmers' protest in Miryalaguda.
Polytechnic students used the meeting to press their opposition to GO 97, issued on July 3, which renamed the Labour, Employment, Training and Factories Department as SHAKTI and brought government polytechnic colleges under its restructuring. The order extends an earlier 2024 decision to place polytechnics, ITIs and Apprentice Training Centres under the Young India Skills University, a move the state government has described as an effort to align technical education with industry requirements.
Students told Rama Rao the order had created uncertainty over the future of the three-year diploma programme and sought clarity on the SBTET framework and on lateral-entry admissions into BTech courses through ECET. They asked him to push the government to withdraw the order.
MGU student leaders separately raised concerns over the university's outsourcing recruitment process, alleging the roster system and government hiring norms had not been followed and that the process lacked transparency.
Rama Rao told both groups he would take up their concerns with the government and raise them in the Assembly if required.
GO 97 has drawn sustained student opposition since it was issued. ABVP members protested outside the SBTET office earlier this month demanding the order's withdrawal, and SFI has called for a statewide bandh limited to polytechnic colleges. Students across these protests have raised a common concern: that merging polytechnics into the YISU-SHAKTI framework could weaken the standing of the three-year diploma and disrupt the ECET pathway into engineering degree courses.
