Student protests continued to rock the capital city. Both the student unions—one demanding a separate state and the other demanding protections for Telangana—marched on the city. Police tried to keep the path of these marches away from each other. Despite their best efforts, the marches crossed paths at the Abids center. In the ensuing clash, students attacked each other with sticks and stones. They threw stones at the R.T.C. buses passing by and at the street lights, and then resorted to throwing stones at the shop windows in the Abids center. Police lathi-charged and fired teargas while eight students and a few police officers were injured.
Chief Minister Brahmananda Reddy started realizing that he needed to deal with the problem more aggressively. He called for a meeting of all the political parties to find a solution to the student movement. Forty-five members of all the major political parties operating in the state met and held a 10-hour marathon meeting. They reached an agreement that addressed the issues raised by the students. The agreement assured the people of strict enforcement of the gentlemen’s agreement. In addition to that, the agreement stated the following:
• Andhra employees in the jobs reserved for Telangana locals will
be immediately removed and provided alternate employment in
the Andhra region.
• Mulki rules will be extended by another year, and corporations,
such as R.T.C. and the Electricity Board funded by the state
government, will be brought under the purview of Mulki rules.
• An executive appointed by the auditor general of India will
determine the extent of Telangana’s balance of funds.
Given this agreement, which all the political parties accepted, the CM
urged students to end their stir and help restore peace in the state. Student
leader Mallikarjunn met with his organization’s members and announced that
they would continue their agitation because they were dissatisfied with the all-
party agreement. He said that the agreement did not address the injustices done
to Telangana, as it merely repeated the gentlemen’s agreement. He protested
the policy of giving access to educational facilities in Hyderabad to people of
all the regions. He then raised frivolous issues such as the government not
doing anything about grants to Osmania University.
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