Hyderabad: Pledging BRS support to the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) students, who have been protesting the state govt’s attempt to take over 50 acres from the university, party working president KT Rama Rao alleged that the Congress was acting like a real estate broker and eyeing educational institutions’ land in the city.The students met KTR at his residence on Friday, and expressed concerns over the govt’s attempt to reclaim the land from the university. KTR said the govt earlier made an abortive bid to take back 400 acres of University of Hyderabad (UoH) land and Agriculture University land, and was now eyeing 50 acres of MANUU land.Speaking to reporters later, he said the govt was behaving like a “serial land snatcher”. He said the Congress govt’s action will severely impact the institution’s future expansion and academic growth. “MANUU is the country’s only exclusive Urdu university and a pride of Hyderabad, which is being deliberately weakened for real estate interests. The Congress govt wants to use the land for its real estate needs. It has become a habit for the govt to grab university land,” KTR alleged.He said despite the Supreme Court’s halt in the UoH land case, and its observations on a 10,000-crore land scam, neither the Centre nor the state govt have probed the issue. Had the Centre acted firmly, the state govt would not have dared to target another central university such as MANUU, KTR said.Assuring the students of raising the issue in Parliament, KTR said a future BRS govt will allocate funds for the university’s expansion and infrastructure.
