Students put government on mat in Mock Assembly

HYDERABAD: The Telangana state hood demand was `raised’ by two students during a debate on Youth and Legislature organised by the State Legislative Assembly in the old Assembly hall here on Tuesday.The mock assembly was held to create awareness on Parliament and Assembly practices among high school students.Assembly speaker Nadendla Manohar and Council chairman A Chakrapani acted as observers.Two students, T Madhavi Lata and K Mohan, conducted the programme as presiding officers.Nearly 60 students of government schools from Medak and Ranga Reddy districts participated.During the two-hour programme boys and girls expressed their opinions on the present political situation and said educated youth should enter politics as only they were capable of suggesting right solutions to all the problems.The students also expressed their displeasure over the conditions in government schools and urged the government to take immediate steps to provide basic infrastructure there.Shortage of teachers, lack of computer facilities and toilets and several other problems were being faced by students of government schools, they said.“If the government schools are made effective, all private schools will have to be closed,” Madhavi Lata said.She remarked that government officials would do nothing but note down the points and urged the speaker to direct education department officials to resolve all the problems.K Nirosha, a student of Zilla Parishat High School at Papannapet in Medak district, urged the speaker to have a resolution on Telangana passed in the House.She said Telangana state was a long-pending demand of the people and several people committed suicide for the cause.She also expressed concern over unabated female foeticide and wanted the government to take stringent action against those who harass women for dowry.Another student, Anil Kumar, wanted to know why the Assembly speaker had not accepted Telangana MLAs’ resignations.He also urged the speaker to allow debates of public interest in the Assembly.The students thanked the speaker for inviting them to the Assembly.In his inaugural and concluding remarks, speaker Manohar directed the educational department to submit a status report on government schools in Ranga Reddy and Medak districts.If necessary, he said, he would direct the government to release additional funds to improve the conditions in government schools.Saying that Mock Assembly would help students develop leadership qualities, he said, hereafter, 250 students would be invited to every session of the Assembly.He announced that an official web site and e-Petition facility would be launched soon.People can directly send their petitions online using Internet and the same would be sent to the MLAs concerned, he added.Assembly secretary Raja Sadaram and additional DEO S Venkateswara Sarma supervised the programm