Hyderabad: Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao was placed under house arrest at his residence in Tarnaka on Thursday, August 27, hours before he was scheduled to visit Government Polytechnic College in Ramanthapur to meet students protesting against Government Order (GO) 97.
Rao claimed that the state police arrived at his residence early in the morning and told him he would not be allowed to leave to meet the students, citing government instructions. He said he complied with the restriction after learning that a large police contingent had also been deployed at the college, to avoid a repeat of confrontations between police and protesting students seen at earlier demonstrations.
Rao said he had been invited by polytechnic students who visited his hunger-strike camp at the BJP state office last week, asking him to speak on their concerns. He alleged the Congress government was preventing political leaders from meeting or engaging with students, and accused it of running the state with what he called an “emergency mindset.”
Polytechnic students across Telangana have been protesting for over a week against GO 97, issued on July 3, which renamed the Labour, Employment, Training and Factories Department as SHAKTI (Skill, Human Capital and Knowledge Training Initiatives) and brought government polytechnic colleges under its ambit alongside the Young India Skills University (YISU).
Students fear the restructuring could affect their access to ECET, the lateral-entry route that allows diploma holders to join undergraduate engineering courses directly, and reduce their education to mere skill training.
Demonstrations have been reported in Ramanthapur, Secunderabad, Mahabubabad, Nalgonda, Vikarabad and Patancheru, with students alleging police used force against protesters at some locations.
The state government has said it will set up a coordination task force to address the concerns, but has not withdrawn the order. Rao said the committee was “an eyewash” unless GO 97 was scrapped entirely.
Rao’s house arrest comes days after he ended a 48-hour hunger strike at the BJP state headquarters demanding release of Rs 15,000 crore in pending fee-reimbursement dues for students.
He raised that issue again on Thursday, along with the demand for higher stipends for AYUSH students, saying Telangana pays postgraduate and house-surgeon stipends far lower than neighbouring Andhra Pradesh despite High Court and Supreme Court directions to raise them.
He also criticised Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who holds the education portfolio, saying the state’s schools and universities face acute staff shortages and that school “rationalisation” was leading to closures. Rao said he would remain at his residence until police left and would seek another opportunity to meet the students.
This post was last modified on August 27, 2026 1:33 pm