The Telangana government does not envision Osmania University as just a producer of public officers but as a cradle of vibrant intelligentsia that upholds and advances the State’s values and aspirations.
“This university, the seat of separate Statehood agitation, a place which owns up people’s problems from anywhere in the State, and is a platform for ideological exchange, is not separate from Telangana. Osmania University and Telangana are synonymous, and like conjoined twins,” Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said, addressing an ecstatic gathering at Osmania University in Hyderabad on Monday (August 25, 2025).
It was the first time since the creation of Telangana State in 2014 that a Chief Minister entered Osmania University and addressed its stakeholders. In April 2017, although former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao attended the university’s centenary celebrations, he cancelled his address following Intelligence reports that students might create disturbances.
On Monday, Mr. Reddy, joined by Minister for SC Development Adluri Laxman Kumar, along with vice chancellor Kumar Molugaram and principal, University College of Arts and Social Sciences, C. Kaseem inaugurated two hostel buildings.
Named Dhundubhi and Bhima, the hostels built at a cost of about ₹80 crore by Telangana Education & Welfare Infrastructure Development Corporation, would provide accommodation to 1000 students. He also laid the foundation stone for new hostels and the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Library Reading Hall.
Barricading and detentions criticised
Mr. Reddy’s visit, observed as historical, was not free from diverse reactions. Students, leaders from the Opposition, and the social media discussed the heavy barricading on the campus and critcised the detention of some student leaders in view of the visit. On the other hand, Mr. Reddy while in Tagore Auditorium was persuasive with his plans for the university.
A 108-year-old university that produced Telangana’s intellect, and the likes of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, former Home Minister Shivraj Patil, former Chief Minister Marri Chenna Reddy, parliamentarian S. Jaipal Reddy and revolutionaries such as Gummadi Vittal Rao aka Gaddar and student leader George Reddy, has been left to rot and been cancerous for lack of appointments, promotions, and recruitment, he said.
Anything and everything for Osmania University
“I will do anything and everything necessary for Osmania University. This university embodies Telangana and is a testimony to its history; we must preserve it for posterity. You just make your developmental plans, and I will approve whatever it is,” he said to the cheering alumni, current students, the staff and the administration.
He instructed Principal Secretary (Education) Yogitha Rana to form a committee of engineers to study and suggest for the development of the university.
Miracle month visit
Mr. Revanth Reddy, acknowledging the heavy arrangements, the mammoth police bandobust and barricading, said he would visit the university again in December, the “miracle month”, also when on the 9th the then Congress government had first announced the process of forming a separate Telangana State in 2009.
“I am instructing the DGP and the commissioner, there shouldn’t be a single police officer on the campus for that meet in front of the Arts College. Let me talk to my brothers and sisters. I may lack the intelligence to answer their questions, but I have the will to do it,” he said.
He, however, cautioned that students and the youths not to fall into the trap of some leaders, “who conspire, spread misinformation, and are like termites spreading all over the place.”
Mr. Reddy, naming senior bureaucrats and leaders in the government, also alumni and present in the auditorium, advised students to invest in education for themselves, and asserted that quality education, not treasuries and land assets, is the most powerful tool to better lives and address social problems.
New fellowships launched
At the event, Mr. Reddy launched two new fellowships – the Chief Minister’s Ph.D. fellowship for full time non-fellowship scholars, for upto 200 scholars, sponsored by The Singareni Collieries Company Limited and the Overseas Fellowship for P.G. and Ph. D. students sponsored by HMDA-MAUD.
Published – August 25, 2025 02:46 pm IST
