Tension at OU campus, Telangana activists barge into exam hall

HYDERABAD: Tension prevailed at the Osmania University campus here on Sunday after scores of pro-Telangana activists barged into an examination centre where Group-I services preliminary tests were being conducted and allegedly snatched answer-sheets and question papers from candidates.

The authorities have declared the exam conducted at the centre as cancelled.

Defying the prohibitory orders imposed at the exam centres amid bandh call given by the Osmania University Students Joint Action Committee (OUJAC), students and pro-Telangana activists broke the barricades put up at the OU campus and scaled the compound wall of the Institute of Advance Studies -- one of the exam centres.

Shouting slogans like 'Jai Telangana', the activists barged into the exam centre and allegedly snatched answer-sheets and question papers from candidates and burnt them even as police intervened and took them into custody.

Angered over the arrests, students indulged in heavy stone pelting on police personnel inside the campus and near the Tarnaka road adjacent the OU campus. They also pelted stones at buses.

Police later lathicharged them and also fired few tear gas shells to disperse the violent mob.

East Zone DCP Mahesh Chandra Laddha told reporters that around 60 protesters were taken into preventive custody. He, however, clarified that neither answer sheets nor question papers were taken away from the candidates.

"We had to use force to disperse violent protesters," the DCP added.

The OUJAC and Telangana JAC had demanded the state government to postpone the Group-I exams demanding 42 per cent reservation of jobs for the people from the region.