Amarinder faces wrath of students at PAU, dubs it ''drama''

Ludhiana, Sep 21 (UNI) Students of the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) today prevented Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh from delivering a speech at the inauguration of the Kisan Mela on the university campus here, while they were beaten by the cops amidst their agitation.

The agitated students and the unemployed veterinary doctors forced the chief minister to leave the campus as they blocked his way towards the stage and raised anti-government slogans, demanding jobs and filling up of vacancies in various departments of the state.

They were lathi-charged and then dragged away, while some of the girls received minor injuries during the scuffle with the cops.

The chief minister, who later dubbed the agitation as a ''drama'', was taken to the PAU rest house by the university Vice Chancellor K S Aulakh. He returned to the venue an hour later to address the gathering.

Justifying the police action, the chief minsiter told reporters that he had already assured the veterinary doctors that the government would soon fill up 482 vacancies in the Animal Husbandry department.

''When I had already assured them to fill the vacancies, there was no need for them to do this drama today,'' Capt Singh said.

The chief minister was accompanied by Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Shamsher Singh Dullo, Animal Husbandry minister Jagmohan Singh Kang, Public Health minister Harnam Dass Johar and another local MLA Surinder Dawar.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has strongly condemned the police action against the agitating students at the PAU.

''This brutal police action against the peacefully agitating students shows that the chief minsiter lacked faith in a civilised approach to polity and his inborn preference for ruling through the might of state repression,'' SAD chief Parkash Singh said in a statement issued here.

SAD general secretary Sukhbir Singh Badal, in a separate statement blamed Capt Singh for pushing the youth into the jaws of unemployment and darkness and answering their pleas with police action''.

UNI XC-PS MIR RS1841