Police Detain Polytechnic Students in Telangana's Patancheru Over GO 97 Protest
Students of the Government Polytechnic College, Patancheru, staged a dharna on the National Highway in Patancheru town on Tuesday, September 8, demanding the immediate cancellation of Government Order (GO) 97. Police moved in and detained a number of students as the protest unfolded, disrupting traffic movement on the highway.
The demonstration is the latest in a series of protests that have swept polytechnic campuses across Telangana over the past several weeks. GO 97, issued on July 3, renamed the Labour, Employment, Training and Factories Department as SHAKTI (Skill, Human Capital and Knowledge Training Initiatives) and brought government polytechnic colleges under the ambit of the Young India Skill University (YISU). Students fear the restructuring could affect the SBTET framework and the ECET lateral-entry route that currently allows diploma holders to move directly into undergraduate engineering programmes.
Similar protests and highway blockades have earlier been reported in Kothagudem, Vikarabad, Ramanthapur, Secunderabad, Mahabubabad and Nalgonda, with students at several locations alleging that police used force to disperse them. The state government has said it will constitute a coordination task force to look into student concerns, but GO 97 has not been withdrawn so far.
Opposition parties, including the BRS and BJP, have extended support to the agitating students and criticised police action at earlier protest sites, while student bodies such as AIDSO and the Telangana Polytechnic Joint Action Committee (TPJAC) have been coordinating the statewide stir.
