UoH students demand cancellation of 400-acre land auction plan

Say ecological importance of the land, which has a long history tied to the university, is overlooked

Hyderabad: Condemning Congress government’s decision to auction 400 acres of University of Hyderabad (UoH) land, the UoH Students Union on Tuesday demanded immediate cancellation of the auction, stating that varsity lands were not for sale.

According to the UoH students, the TSIIC announced to auction 400 acres of land in Kancha Gachibowli, which has an estimated value of Rs 10,000 crore, between March 8 and 15.

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While the government claims the auction as a step towards revenue generation and infrastructure development, the ecological importance of the land, which has a long history tied to the UoH, was overlooked, it said.

After an extended legal battle between the IMG Academies Bharata and the State government that had allotted 400 acres of varsity land to the former, which failed to fulfil development obligation, the High Court recently ruled in favour of the government, permitting auction, it said.

This verdict disregards the land’s original purpose and the environmental cost that would follow its commercialization, the students union said.

Students also found the State government’s decision on auctioning the land as hypocritical as Congress, which opposes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s privatisation policies, was engaging in the same practice in the State.

“The Congress government’s decision to auction university land mirrors the very corporate appeasement and privatization drives that they claim to oppose when it comes from the BJP government. This exposes the party’s double standards-opposing the selling out of public goods in the Centre while facilitating the same in Telangana,” the students union said.