Students took to the streets in Hyderabad on Sunday demanding accountability and stronger safety rules for events at educational institutions after the death of Soni and the hospitalisation of several others following a Dandiya event at MVSR Engineering College in Nadergul.
The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) Telangana state secretary T. Nagaraju questioned why adequate safety arrangements had not been ensured before the programme. The organisation called for a comprehensive inquiry into the incident and legal action against anyone found responsible.
The demands have focused on how large cultural and entertainment programmes are approved and managed on college campuses. Nagaraju alleged that engineering colleges were increasingly organising cultural programmes and film-related events for revenue, referring to programmes at Malla Reddy institutions and events involving film personalities, including Preethi Reddy and Sreeleela. The allegations were made during the student protest and were not independently established in the report.
Another student leader, Prabhakar, questioned whether police were adequately checking permissions and safety arrangements before allowing such programmes. He also raised concerns about drug use among students and urged authorities to apply greater caution while permitting campus events.
The SFI demanded that the Telangana government issue specific guidelines for events held at educational institutions. The proposed framework should cover crowd management, emergency exits, fire safety, medical facilities and police permissions, according to the organisation. It warned that entertainment programmes should not be allowed to put students’ lives at risk.
JNTUH Joint Action Committee state president Balgar Sandeep separately sought ₹5 crore compensation for Soni’s family and free medical treatment for the injured students, with the college management bearing the expenses. He also demanded free education for the injured students until they complete their courses, along with psychological counselling and other support.
Sandeep called for an impartial, high-level inquiry into the event permissions, safety arrangements, emergency exits, medical facilities and crowd management at the MVSR programme. He also urged the Telangana government to conduct special safety inspections across engineering colleges and other educational institutions.
The proposed inspections would examine fire-safety systems, first-aid facilities, ambulance availability and crowd-control arrangements, according to the demands raised by the student groups. The report did not specify whether the government had accepted the requests, nor did it provide details of the event’s permissions, the number of people present or the official response from MVSR Engineering College or the police.
