HYDERABAD: Caught in no-man's-land between supporters of Telangana and Samaikhya Andhra are the educational institutions in Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar and Khammam, which share their borders with districts from Andhra and Rayalaseema belt.
While the `united Andhra' agitation has picked up in the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, college managements of these Telangana districts say that the academic year is getting affected in engineering colleges on city outskirts close to the Andhra and Rayalseema district borders.
The colleges, many of which remained open even during the holidays announced by the state government (from December 4 to December 18) are now faced with a new problem of students from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions not attending classes. Many colleges that had closed down soon after the government order but opened their gates after Telangana districts returned to normalcy, are now complaining that Andhra students have refrained from attending classes.
The reason for this could be the overtly political atmosphere which developed in these otherwise apolitical colleges due to the Samaikhya Andhra movement which is rocking the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. The college managements themselves are alarmed by the fact that their classrooms are getting divided on regional lines.
According to them, students from Andhra have not been attending colleges. This could either be because they are participating the in `united Andhra' agitation or due to the fear of being targeted in their colleges in Telangana region, say college managements.
Even though classes are going on peacefully in `T' areas (other than Hyderabad and Warangal), the students are not willing to cross the border, said a management representative, who is alarmed by the attendance records. "The classroom itself is getting divided on regional lines," said a management representative, from a college in Khammam.
While the heads of `T' institutions said that they did not want to get involved in any kind of regional battle, they admitted that they were unable to control the sentiments of their staff and students. With more number of students and staff restraining from academic activity, the academic year has almost come to a standstill in these colleges, the management representatives rued.
Shaken by the strong regional sentiment on campus, management representatives of engineeringcolleges of the three districts said that they have stopped bus services to places like Jaggayyapeta, Nandigama, Vijayawada and Kurnool for fear of getting attacked. "There is news everyday that people from Telangana are getting attacked in Andhra. Even if these are rumours, we have to be cautious. We do not want our staff and students to be affected and hence will not be plying buses to these areas," said a management representative from a college in Kodada, Nalgonda district. The college, which is just 10 kms from Krishna district, has 25 per cent of its students coming from Jaggayyapeta and Nandigama.
Meanwhile, some managements have already taken steps to prevent any kind of tension. "Students were greeting each other with slogans supporting Telangana and Andhra and there was political activity in classrooms. We have made announcements asking them to stop any kind of talk or propaganda about the separation issue. We also banned political rallies and marches on the college campus," principal of a college in Kodada said.
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