Students of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT) in Telangana’s Nirmal district called off their week-long protest after education minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy gave an assurance that their problems will be solved in a phased manner.

The breakthrough came in the early hours of Tuesday after the minister held talks with the protesting students at RGUKT, popularly known as IIIT Basara.

The students announced that they will resume attending classes from Tuesday as the minister has given the assurance that all their demands will be met in a phased manner.

They had been demanding appointment of a regular vice chancellor and improvement in quality of food and other basic amenities.

With the students insisting for an assurance from the chief minister’s office or the minister, Sabitha Indra Reddy rushed to Basara from Hyderabad on Monday.

She was accompanied by Nirmal district collector Musharraf Ali Farooqi, IIIT Basara incharge vice chancellor Rahul Bojja, Telangana State Higher Education Council vice chairman Venkat Ramna, IIIT Basara director Satish Kumar, education commsioner Vakati Karuna, superintendent of police Praveen Kumar and local MLA Vithal Reddy.

The minister first held talks with the officials, who briefed her on the students’ demands and the progress made in the talks held with them by the collector and director.

Sabitha Indra Reddy subsequently held talks with 20-member Students’ Governing Council. The talks continued past midnight.

After the talks, the students said they were satisfied with the assurance of the minister to address their problems in the order of priority.

The students decided to call of the protest and resume attending classes.

The district collector said Rs 5.6 crore will be released immediately to the institution.

Earlier, students continued their protest for a seventh day on Monday to press for their demands.

Braving rains, they continued the sit-in at the main gate of the building.

The talks held by district collector andA director till early Monday morning failed to break the deadlock as the students insistedAhat a statement be issued from the chief minister’s office or education minister Sabitha Indra Reddy or information technology minister K. T. Rama Rao give a written assurance to solve their problems.

The students have complained that the food being served in the hostel mess is of poor quality. They alleged that on several occasions, small insects and frogs were found in the hostel food.

Gudatipally village in Siddipet district of Telangana is on the boil as people whose lands were acquired for building a reservoir are on the warpath demanding fair compensation.

The village and its surroundings have been witnessing protests, arrests and police lathicharge for the last three days.

The entry of opposition parties Congress and the BJP in support of the oustees has turned Gauravelli reservoir into a flashpoint.

The protest by the oustees turned violent on Tuesday when they staged a sit-in after police foiled their attempt to lay siege to local MLA V. Satheesh’s official residence. Some people, said to be workers of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), attacked the protesters, injuring a few.

The protesters were enraged at the police allowing TRS workers to attack them. The oustees and those supporting them pelted stones at the police injuring a few personnel. The police then resorted to a lathicharge and arrested some youths. The oustees later staged a protest at the police station demanding their release.

This came a day after a heavy police force entered Gudatipally village in the wee hours of Monday and took several people into custody. The police said it took some people into preventive custody as they were planning to stop officials from conducting a survey for trial runs.

The police came under attack from all opposition parties for its action. All India Congress Committee member Bakka Judson lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission against the police.

The area remained tense on Wednesday as the villagers continued their protest. “There is no question of calling off our protest. We will continue to fight till we get the compensation,” said a farmer.

The oustees have vowed not to allow the authorities to go ahead with the work till they are given fair compensation.

Kisan Congress national vice-president Kodanda Reddy and former Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar visited Husnabad and expressed solidarity with the protesters.

They demanded that the relief & rehabilitation package, double bedroom houses and compensation as per the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 be extended to all those eligible.

The Congress leaders along with the protesters tried to march to Finance Minister Harish Rao’s house with a convoy of trucks but were stopped by the police.

Police officials held talks with the Congress leaders and protesters and allowed 10 persons to proceed.

Meanwhile, Harish Rao alleged that the opposition parties have conspired to deny water for irrigation to the farmers of Husnabad. He said the Congress and the BJP were trying to extract political mileage from the issue.

He said the opposition parties had similarly stalled the work on Mallanna Sagar and Kondapochamma Sagar reservoirs.

Stating that the government has paid compensation to 98 per cent of the oustees, he appealed to the people not to fall into the trap of the opposition parties.

Harish Rao said the officials have already acquired 3,816 acres of land and only 84 acres are left to be acquired. He pointed out that the oustees are being paid a compensation of Rs 15 lakh per acre.

Out of the 937 families identified for the relief and rehabilitation package, compensation is to be paid to only two per cent oustees. “The reservoir is designed to provide irrigation water to one lakh farmers in Husnabad. Should we stop the project for the sake of two per cent people,” he asked.

The reservoir, which will get Godavari river water, was first designed in 2007 in undivided Andhra Pradesh for 1.14 tmcft. After the formation of Telangana state, it was redesigned as part of the Kaleshwaram project and the capacity was increased to 8.3 tmcft.

Godavari water will flow from the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) to the Mid Manair Dam and from there the water will be diverted to Thotapalli reservoir and then to the pump house of the Gauravelli project.

The authorities are going ahead with the work for the initially proposed dry run for 1.141 tmcft. As the motors to pump water into Gauravelli reservoir were brought from China and Japan, the officials are working to conduct the dry run to test their functioning.

The project is likely to submerge Gudatipally village. If the work is taken up for the full capacity of 8.3 tmcft, it is likely to submerge seven other surrounding villages.

The problems cropped up due to the difference in the amount of compensation paid to the oustees. Some oustees who were minors when their lands were acquired and have now become major are refusing the Rs 2 lakh compensation being offered to them. Some who had agreed to take plots are now demanding money as compensation.

Continuing their drive against unauthorised constructions in the municipalities surrounding Hyderabad, the authorities on Wednesday razed 10 more structures.

The District Task Force and Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) intensified the drive by pulling down major illegal structures that included five-storied buildings and warehouses spread over two acres.

The Task Force has cracked down on 33 major unauthorised constructions in three days.

On Wednesday, Task Force teams pulled down illegal buildings in Thumkunta, Manikonda, Shamshabad and Pedda Amberpet municipalities.

Five structures were demolished in Thumkunta municipality, two each in Manikonda and Shamshabad and one in Pedda Amberpet.

The demolished structures include two constructions spread over 2.25 acres in Thumkunta and another construction on 1.20 acres in Shamshabad municipality.

The officials had razed 10 unauthorised constructions on the first day and 13 on the second day of the demolition drive.

Earlier, the drive was carried out in Shankarpalli, Badangpet, Dundigal, Boduppal and Pocharam municipalities.

Town planning officers were also pulled up for failing to identify the unauthorised buildings during their construction.

Numaish, the popular annual trade fair of Hyderabad, has been suspended till January 10 in view of the curbs imposed by Telangana government to check the spread of Covid-19.

Authorities on Sunday night ordered closure of Numaish, a day after it was inaugurated by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and state Home Minister Mahmood Ali.

Hundreds of visitors were at the fair when officials stopped the ticket bookings and ordered all those who were in Exhibition Grounds to leave immediately.

About 10,000 people visited the exhibition from Sunday afternoon till night when authorities ordered the All India Industrial Exhibition Society (AIIES) to close it.

The action was taken in view of the state government extending restrictions to check the spread of Covid-19 till January 10. The government has prohibited rallies, public meetings and mass gatherings of all types, including religious, political and cultural.

The 45-day long annual exhibition was inaugurated on January 1 and the first day saw lukewarm response from visitors.

The AIIES, which has been organising the fair for 80 years, had put in place various measures to adhere to Covid-19 safety rules like compulsory wearing of masks, maintaining social distance, and vaccination of all stall owners.

The organisers had allotted 1,600 stalls to traders and various business organisations from different parts of the country to sell their products at the fair.

The exhibition could not be held last year due to Covid-19 situation. This was only the third time in its history that it could not be held.

Numaish-e-Masnuaat-e-Mulki, or Numaish in short, made a humble beginning in 1938 as an event to promote locally produced goods.

The fair begins on January 1 every year and continues for 45 days. Traders from various parts of the country set up their stalls during the exhibition, which is visited by 45,000 people every day. Over 20 lakh visitors had visited the exhibition in 2019.

A unique blend of economy and culture, the event is organised on the sprawling grounds and revenues from the fair are spent on a group of educational and charitable institutions run by the Society.

Hyderabad added another flyover under Strategic Road Development Project (SRDP) as Owaisi-Midhani Junction Flyover was thrown open on Tuesday.

The 1.36 km long flyover has been named after former President and father of India’s missile programme Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

Telangana’s minister for municipal administration and urban development K. T. Rama Rao, who inaugurated the flyover, called it a small tribute to a great great man who worked at DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and also lived in the neighbourhood for over a decade.

Built at an estimated cost of Rs 80 crore, the flyover will facilitate hassle-free traffic movement over Owaisi Junction, a busy intersection near Owaisi Hospital and Research Centre in Santosh Nagar, the area which has several defence research laboratories including DRDO, Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (Midhani) and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).

Home minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, education minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and Chandrayangutta MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi attended the inaugural ceremony.

The flyover has been constructed under SRDP, an initiative of the state government to improve the infrastructure in Hyderabad. The multilevel flyover will ease traffic congestion and help provide better connectivity between eastern part of the city and the old city.

During the last four years construction of 19 flyovers, underpasses and bridges was completed during the last four years.

These include iconic Durgam Cheruvu cable-stayed bridge is a four-lane elevated corridor which reduces the distance between Jubilee Hills to Hitec City, Gachibowli areas, Mindspace Junction flyover, Mindspace Junction Underpass in the heart of Hitec City, the second level flyover at Biodiversity Junction which provides a conflict-free corridor for the traffic in Hitec City, Madhapur, Gachibowli and IT corridor, Biodiversity Flyover (Level I) which eases the traffic congestion on Old Bombay Highway from Gachibowli towards Raidurg.

Minister KTR had told the state Assembly in September that the government is making all efforts to complete SRDP on priority to ease traffic congestion in the city. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had taken Rs 5,900 crore loan for the project.

He had revealed that of the total 46 projects proposed under SRDP, about 22 were completed and 24 were under progress. The 22 works have been thrown open to traffic.

The remaining 24 works (21 by GHMC and three by NHAI and R & B Department) are under various stages of construction, he had said.