Hyderabad: In a major boost to Osmania University, the Telangana government on Wednesday, December 10, sanctioned a whopping Rs 1000 crore for its development.
Addressing the gathering of students, chief minister Revanth Reddy reaffirmed his commitment to restoring the institution’s past glory and elevating it to international standards.
He also unveiled a special QR code that will allow students to share their feedback and suggestions on the proposed master plan and designs.
Emphasising education as the key to transforming lives, he highlighted the government’s push for quality learning. He argued that knowledge and commitment mattered more than knowing foreign languages. “English is only a means of communication, not knowledge,” he said.
Addressing students and faculty, he said that Telangana has a history of resisting injustice and authoritarianism, adding that OU had produced several prominent personalities, including former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, former Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy, folk singer Gaddar and student leader George Reddy, who inspired social struggles.
He said the university was at the forefront of the final phase of the Telangana agitation.
Indirectly responding to BRS leaders’ criticism of his administrative experience, Reddy said he did not study in Guntur in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh “like some”, in a veiled reference to BRS working president K T Rama Rao.
He said he grew up in a village, witnessing poverty firsthand, and was committed to working for the welfare of the underprivileged.
Stepping up his attack on the previous BRS government, Reddy said it had built a bungalow on 10 acres, a grand Secretariat, and executed the Kaleshwaram project at Rs 1 lakh crore. “They built farmhouses on hundreds of acres of lands. Not a single Dalit family was given 3 acres of land in the last government,” the chief minister claimed.
In contrast, he said, his government had taken four major steps that resonated with Telangana’s identity in the past two years. These included declaring ‘Jaya Jaya He Telangana’ as the state song, unveiling the portrait of Telangana Thalli representing Bahujans, classifying SC communities, and initiating a caste survey for the benefit of Backward Classes.
Reddy said the government no longer had land to distribute as part of poverty-alleviation schemes and stressed that education alone could change the lives of the poor.
A government survey showed that families owning up to 20 acres of land were still “backward” due to lack of education, he said.
“Such people are not poor, but they are backward. Poverty is different, and backwardness is different,” he added.
The chief minister said the government was setting up Young India Integrated Residential Schools in about 100 of the state’s 119 Assembly constituencies, where 2,500-3,000 students from various communities would study together to break caste barriers and promote social harmony.
He also alleged that the previous BRS government had “ruined” Osmania University and urged students not to fall into the “trap of political parties.”
This was his second visit to the university.
BRSV leaders detained, protests erupt
Earlier, several Bharat Rashtra Samithi Vidyarthi (BRSV) leaders were reportedly detained by the police ahead of the chief minister’s visit.
However, protests still took place at the university with students shouting “CM down down” slogans. In a video posted by the BRS party’s X handle, police can be seen trying to control the outburst of a massive crowd.
According to BRS leader Manne Krishank, the students were protesting Revanth Reddy’s failure to release a job calendar and fill 2 lakh jobs in a year.
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