A series of suicides by students in Narayana group of institutions and the associated Sri Chaitanya colleges in the Telugu states due to psychological stress has triggered a state-wide uproar.
Yet, neither the Chandrababu Naidu government in AP and Chandrasekhar Rao government in Telangana has remained unmoved.
Particularly in Andhra Pradesh, as many as 38 Intermediate students committed suicide owing to the pressure in academics amongst the Narayana group residential colleges in Andhra Pradesh in the last three years.
But, Naidu has not been able to do anything because they belong to the municipal administration minister P Narayana, who is his close associate.
Even higher education minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, too, cannot take any action against the Narayana group of institutions, because Narayana happens to be his “viyyankudu”.
However, with the parents raising a hue and cry over the spate of suicides and major opposition YSR Congress party calling for a bandh on October 16 protesting against the government’s inaction, Naidu is forced to react at least for the record sake.
He asked Ganta to inspect the Narayana group institutions and find out the reasons for suicides.
On Saturday, Ganta visited the hostel of Narayana College in Visakhapatnam and interacted with the students present at the hostel and warned all the colleges of stern action in this regard.
He tried to defend Narayana, stating that the problem is with the private hostels which are not owned by the colleges. He said there are 188 such affiliated hostels in AP and they are not related to the colleges.
He said the government had called for a meeting of management of all residential colleges, hostels and parents on October 16 to hold serious discussions regarding the issue of suicides in hostels.
“We will find out the solution,” the minister said.
