Angry villagers pelt stones on Nitish during Kalam's visit

Bihar-sharif, Feb 8 (UNI) A group of villagers near here today protested against the alleged inadequate compensation for the acquisition of their lands for the proposed Nalanda International University and pelted stones on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Raising anti-government slogans during the visit of former President A P J Abdul Kalam at Pilkhi to examine the site of the proposed University, the agitated villagers also tried to disrupt the high-level meeting which was being held here.

Demanding adequate compensation for doling out about 400 acres of the land required for the university, the villagers charged the government with being totally insensitive to their demands.

Alleging that no suitable alternative financial offer had been made by the state authority in exchange of the acquired land, the villagers sought immediate intervention of Dr Kalam, who is also the first ''visitor'' of the proposed university as well as the Chief Minister to redress their grievances.

Hearing the slogan shouting villagers, when the Chief Minister came out of the meeting hall, he was greeted with abusive languages.

Some stones were also pelted towards him but all of them missed the target.

Soon the security forces swung into action and took the Chief Minister back inside the hall.They also resorted to mild lathicharge and cordoned off the entire area.

''I am ready to sacrifice my life for the cause of development of Nalanda and this kind of incident will not deter me from moving ahead towards this cherished goal,'' Mr Kumar thundered while talking to UNI after the incident.Later, both Dr Kalam and the Chief Minister returned to Patna.

Earlier, the former President, who arrived in Patna last night on a two-day visit to Bihar,visited Rajgir and Nalanda.

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