A 2015 GO states that all political and religious meetings are banned in the educational campus. But when the TDP Mahanadu has been met with resistance after sparking controversy for conducting the liquor shops auction at AU, the TDP doesn’t seem to have let any of it affect them.
It is going ahead with the Mahanadu meeting planned at the AU Engineering Grounds after obtaining an order from the Department of Higher Education. The Bhoomi Puja was conducted for the same by Home Minister N Chinarajappa, party president and Minister Kala Venkata Rao and local MLAs.
In 2015, the then Secretary in the Department of Higher Education TV Sri Krishna Murthy had issued a circular asking the Registrars of all universities to ban political and religious meetings on their campuses. After the order, many meetings including one by Chinna Jeer Swamy and a meeting by the YSRCP Students Union about the special category status in the state.
A new order was issued on Friday where the Secretary of Higher Education Dr S Varadarajan stated that the Vice Chancellor holds the authority to exercise the powers of executive council exigencies under the Section 13 (8) of the AP Universities Act. The order even asks the Registrar to place the matter before the VC so they can take a decision if the political party should be allowed to use the space or not. The new order comes in following a request put in by Visakhapatnam South MLA Vasupalle Ganesh Kumar.
When Home Minister Chinarajappa was questioned by reporters, he said that they had gotten permission from the Department of Higher Education and there was no need to make it public and show it to the media.
Around 20,000 leaders and workers will be attending the three-day Mahanadu event. 14 resolutions will be tabled during the conference that has been conducted annually since 1983. The event is expected to be held on a grand scale. The Student Union leaders of the YSRCP have lodged a complaint with the police that several men, lorries and material has entered the campus in the name of Mahanadu. The complaint also states that the ‘anti social men’ are digging up the place and intimidating student and teacher communities.
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