Hyderabad: Polytechnic students protest over GO MS 97, demand SBTET control

Polytechnic students from across Telangana staged a protest at Hyderabad’s Dharna Chowk, demanding withdrawal of GO MS 97 and continuation under the SBTET and Education Department. Students opposed the proposed YISU framework, citing concerns over career prospects, governance and lack of clarity.

Hyderabad: After over three weeks of protests on college campuses, polytechnic students took to the streets demanding that the Telangana Congress government immediately revoke the GO MS 97 that brings polytechnics under the control of the Young India Skills University (YISU).

Students from various polytechnics who staged a protest at Dharna Chowk here on Thursday demanded the government keep polytechnics under the purview of the SBTET and Education Department. They raised slogans against the government, stating they do not want a merger of polytechnics with the Shakti department (formerly Labour department).

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A second diploma student at Government Polytechnic for Women Secunderabad, Vamshika, said that, in order to water down the protest, the government was saying that there was no merger of polytechnics, while the GO MS 97 states otherwise. The order states that polytechnics should be brought under the YISU framework and ecosystem, but the government was yet to come up with such a skill framework, she said, adding that there was no clarity for the officials in the first place.

Another diploma student, Grunasmai, lamented that the government was playing with their future by merging the polytechnics with the YISU. “The Andhra Pradesh government has already done the same exercise and miserably failed in it. Why repeat the same mistake in Telangana?” she questioned.

Several first-year students regretted their decision to join the diploma programmes. “I joined polytechnic to crack a railway job with the diploma. Now, with this merger, I do not think I will be eligible for the railway job,” said Manoj of Government Institute of Leather Technology.

Laxmikanth Reddy, another student from the same college, said the YISU has been established under the public-private partnership. “This means the university will be under control of businessmen and companies that only bother about the profits,” he said.

Extending support to protesters, BRS MLA and former Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav alleged that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy issued the GO with an eye on lands of the polytechnics. Reminding students that the Gen Z protest against the NEET UG question paper leak in Delhi led to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, he asked them to not back down and continue the protest until their demands were met.

He said the BRS would raise the issue in the upcoming Assembly session and fight for it tooth and nail until the government withdraws the order.

BRS MLC Dasoju Sravan Kumar and BRSV president G Srinivas Yadav, polytechnic staff and alumni, among others, also participated in the protest.