Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday granted conditional permission to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to hold a public meeting here on Saturday.

Hyderabad police had earlier denied permission to ABVP to hold the meeting to press the demand for statehood to Telangana.

The court directed the organisers not to make provocative speeches and asked the police to allow only students carrying identity cards at the meeting.

The ABVP plans to mobilise thousands of students from different parts of Telangana for the meeting called 'Vidyarthi Ranabheri' to be held at Nizam College grounds.

Several pro-Telangana political parties and organisations had urged the government to permit ABVP to hold the meeting. Many political organisations have also declared their support to the meeting and have appealed to people to attend in large numbers to send a strong signal to the central government.

Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj is expected to address the meeting. ABVP leader R. Shashidhar Reddy said the Congress government had denied permission as it was afraid of the presence of the BJP leader.

The High Court had earlier allowed students of Osmania University and Osmania Medical College to hold meetings with certain conditions after the police denied permission for the same.

Meanwhile, the meeting organised at Osmania Medical College on Friday urged the central government to immediately table a bill in the parliament to carve out Telangana state.

The medical students decided to organise medical camps in different parts of the region from January 29. They extended support to Joint Action Committees (JACs) of political parties and students fighting for statehood to Telangana. IANS