SFI condemns police brutality to thwart student’s protest

State leaders of the Student Federation of India (SFI) condemned the act of brute force used by police on students participating in a protest in Vijayawada on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, the federation’s State secretary K. Prasanna Kumar said they were forced to resort to “Chalo Vijayawada” protest on Saturday, as the government failed to respond to their series of agitations at mandal and district levels. He said that not a single issue of students had been resolved in the more than an year-long rule of the TDP-led coalition government in the State.

He said that ignoring their plea seeking an audience with the HRD Minister Nara Lokesh, the police used lathis on the students, not even sparing girl students. He alleged that a student named Kavya’s suffered fracture in her hand in the police attack and three others had fainted.

Mr. Prasanna Kumar also demanded repeal of the GO which had imposed a ban on the entry of student unions in schools and colleges. Calling it a gross violation of students’ fundamental rights, he demanded that the GO be withdrawn immediately.

The federation’s State president P. Rammohan said it was unfortunate that only student unions were being targeted by the police for staging a protest. “We are only demanding implementation of the promises made by the TDP and its allies at the time of elections,” he said.

AFI leaders Usha, Madhav and Shanmukh Jaswanth were also present.