Hyderabad:
Protests for and against a new Telangana state in Andhra Pradesh have forced colleges to shut, jeopardising the future of lakhs of students. And there is a real danger of students losing an academic year.
Karan and his friends, all engineering students, are worried. They say the January 5 meeting in Delhi on Telangana has not taken away any of the uncertainty.
"Not getting to know when I will write my exams, what is the state of it. And if my exams get postponed even further and further, I may even lose an year and that will become a real problem for me later on," says Karan.
"We don't deserve to be affected by this. I don't deserve to lose an year because someone has suddenly realised something," says Firdaus, who is a final year Mass Communication student.
For over a month now, pro-Telangana protests on the Osmania University campus have forced colleges in the region to be closed. Exams have had to be postponed twice.
"Even now we still hope the academic year won't be lost. Once we finish our exams and start our course work, we will be back on track," says T Vijay Kumar, a professor at the university.
Protestors may be aiming to correct the wrongs of the past, but that still can't justify putting the future of so many youngsters at stake.