Parents of Basara IIIT students sit-in at Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy's residence

HYDERABAD: Several parents of students of IIIT in Basara (RGUKT) organised a sit-in in front of the residence of Telangana Education Minister Ms P Sabitha Indra Reddy on Sunday.

They organised the protest at her residence in Srinagar Colony in the city.

They disclosed that their wards were facing severe hardship in the institution and they came to submit a memorandum to the minister and request her to address the grievances at the earliest.

They wanted the minister to act on the problems confronting the students forthwith, else they would launch a massive agitation.

Stating that the problems were mounting by the day, the assurances given by the minister earlier were not yet fulfilled by the officials. They were pursuing delay tactic, the parents alleged.

Police forces were deployed at the minister's residence and they quelled the protesters.

The police took them into custody.

3,000 IIIT Basar students boycott mess food

Meanwhile, over 3,000 students of the IIIT Basera boycotted mess food demanding change in mess contractors and also ensuring hygiene since Saturday evening.

The students also sought to know why no action was taken against the mess operators even though several students were hospitalised on July 15.

SGC RGUKT Basar tweeted that students of "E1 and E2 hostels boycott mess. Most of the reasons are centres toward (sic) mess infrastructure, hygiene, malnutrition and unresolved promises made by Hon'ble Vice Chancellor (I/C) during the mass food poison incident."

While the VC met them on July 30 and assured them of resolving their issues and addressing their concerns. The death of a student, Sanjay Kiran, belonging to Warangal was also attributed to mess food. The other demands of the students included appropriate student-teacher ratio, sports, toilets, library and efficient teachers.