Osmania University students have finally come up with a demand not related to the Telangana agitation but with removal of religious structures from the campus. This was not enough when the demand has become even more intense in the context of groups of students damaging an idol in a temple located on the campus last week.

Furthermore, several student wings have requested the varsity for an peaceable removal of religious structures constructed on campus after an RTI query revealed that there are 15 temples and 10 mosques and dargahs on the campus which are known to be illegal.

While only one structure, Sainuddin Mosque, was allotted 22 guntas of land during the Nizam period when the other religious structures are basically 'encroachment' of the varsity's property, the RTI reply said. It said that places of worship were not given to any party either on lease or free.

Not only that, student groups, including the All India Students' Front, Progressive Democratic Students' Union, Telangana Vidyarthi Vibhag, Students' Federation of India, Bahujan Students' Front, Telangana Students' Association, Dalit Students' Union and Tribal Students' Union, in a petition given to OU authorities, have demanded the removal of these religious structures.

Fact-fully, the same demand was made in September 2012, though the university authorities had not acted on it.

According to a student leader, Osmania University is a secular and democratic space meant for education and the space cannot be used as a place of worship.

Government rules prevent the establishment of places of worship in public institutions, observers said. The RTI query asking for details of religious structures on campus was filed by Stalin and B Salaiah, two OU research scholars. The students said that in the recent clashes, places of religious worship were targeted. Pidamarthi Ravi, a student leader of OU said that presence of such structures on campus creates communal disharmony. It seems that even the university authorities are thinking of taking a proactive stand on this issue.

As a concluding fact, the RTI response from the university authorities said though aware of the sensitive situation regarding eviction of sites encroached for constructing religious structures, the university authorities have decided to place the matter before higher authorities for taking appropriate action and they cannot order a removal.  According to the top university official,  talks will be held with custodians of these religious structures to chalk out an peceable solution.

It was a sudden realization that such structures on campus creates communal disharmony an they should be removed.

We are always ready for some excuses or the other while diverting from the actual reality, which as a further result brings nothing but chaos to the nation and it's people.

(AW:Samrat Biswas)