NEET ROW: Cops thwart students’ bid to besiege Raj Bhavan

Hyderabad: The police foiled an attempt by the student leaders to take out a march towards Raj Bhavan from IMAX circle at Necklace Road aimed at laying a siege on Monday, as part of ongoing protests over NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) paper leak scam. As part of intensifying the ongoing campaign, the NSUI gave a call for a State-wide bandh on July 6, the day counselling begins.

Scores of leaders representing NSUI and student wings affiliated to Left parties were detained at the Indira Gandhi statue, where they had converged for a rally. They demanded that the Union government conduct re-examination of NEET, rather than going for counselling.

The student organisations including SFI, AISF, PDSU, VJS, AIPSU, PYS, DYFI, AIYF, PYL and YJS, apart from NSUI have been demanding that the Union government conduct a probe under the supervision of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, while terminating the National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducts the NEET and is being blamed for the entire fiasco. “We decided to lay siege to Raj Bhavan and take out the protest march after the Governor denied an appointment for submitting a representation. The Union government has failed to act upon the issue and did not declare re-examination.

This is depriving the lakhs of meritorious students from across the country who had appeared for NEET, including over 70,000 students from Telangana. This fight will continue till the Union government comes down and listens to our demands,” said MLC and NSUI State president Venkat Balmoor.

Even as the police tried to stop the march and pick up the student leaders, those who were part of the rally ran berserk. In the melee, one of the wind screens of a police vehicle also got damaged. The student leaders were later shifted to Goshamahal police grounds.

Earlier on June 22, these student leaders attempted to lay siege to the residence of Union Minister G Kishan Reddy after he did not give an appointment to the student leaders. The protesting students who took out a rally led by Balmoor Venkat, amidst sloganeering, reached the Union Minister’s residence. They later tried to break the security cover prompting the police to detain scores of them.