Harish Rao detained, GO 97 still explains itself
The BRS leader was detained after attending an employees’ protest in Hanamkonda, as students continue asking for written safeguards on the polytechnic restructuring.
The legal basis of the action and the text of GO 97 remained unclear.
Analysis
T. Harish Rao was detained outside the Hanamkonda district Collectorate on August 27 after attending a government employees’ protest, according to multiple reports. Police later took the BRS Legislature Party deputy leader on foot to Subedari police station and sent him back to Hyderabad. The exact legal status—detention, preventive arrest or formal arrest—has not been made public.
The protest’s demands included PRC implementation, six pending DA instalments, scrapping CPS, restoring OPS, clearing unpaid bills, health cards and filling vacant university posts. Rao then tried to meet students protesting the proposed polytechnic restructuring under GO 97. Students want fees, ECET and lateral-entry protections in writing. The government has formed a review committee and says the plan is about modernising courses, infrastructure and employability. It has not published the order itself in the material reviewed here.
Reports said police had earlier placed Rao under house arrest in Kokapet, but no police order confirms that. The Congress government has also not publicly explained the precise legal basis for the Hanamkonda action. It has, however, found time to make students ask for written guarantees while offering assurances. GO 97 remains the document everyone is discussing and nobody has produced here.