Students threaten immolation, hurt in police lathi-charge

Rohtak, Mar 26 (UNI) Atleast 20 students, including girls, sustained minor injuries in police lathi-charge here today when they staged a dharna to press for a ban on admissions to the Diploma in Education (DED) course.

Hundreds of diploma holders across the state threatended to start a hunger strike and were ready to commit self-immolation, if the government allowed admissions to the course, which lacked job opportunities, this year.

Addressing the protesters at the local Jat Education Institute Ground, student leaders lashed out at the Haryana State Government for granting permission to several private educational institutions to run the course and questioned the logic of further admissions to the course, when nearly 27,000 diploma holders were already in the queue for employment.

They also marched towards the local residence of State Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, but were stopped by the police at the government college gate, where they submitted a memorandum of their demands to Capt Ahastar Singh, political secretary to the Chief Minister.

When they staged a dharna insisting on immediate action on their memorandum, the police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse them, hurting several of them.

UNI XC JN GL KN1958