Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari, and several other NSUI leaders and activists were injured in police action when they tried to march towards Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's residence here on Monday to protest against the alleged nursing college scam and other issues.
While Congress workers claimed police used water cannons, and tear gas shells and resorted to lathi-charge to break the protest, police denied using batons to disperse the agitators. As many as 30 protesters were detained and later released, the police said.
The National Students Union of India (NSUI), the campus wing of the Congress, had organised the march to protest against the alleged nursing college scam in Madhya Pradesh, the NEET paper leak and the Agnipath recruitment scheme for short-term induction of personnel into the armed forces.
Patwari and several other senior Congress leaders, MLAs and NSUI functionaries, including its state unit president Ashutosh Chouksey, took part in the march. Talking to PTI, Patwari said, "I have received stitches on my (right) elbow. I sustained injuries in the lathi-charge. I will lodge a police complaint tomorrow (Tuesday)."
The NSUI's protest will continue in the interest of students and the public, the former state minister said. NSUI leader Chouksey, too, sustained injuries. His picture of being treated at a city hospital has surfaced on social media. The police used water cannons and lobbed tear gas shells to prevent protesters from marching towards Chief Minister Yadav's official residence in the state capital.
"We arrested 30 protesters, and they were released after they furnished bonds," Bhopal City Zone 1 Deputy Commissioner of Police Priyanka Shukla told PTI. While two tear gas shells and water cannons were used, the police did not resort to cane-charge to disperse the agitators, she clarified.
NSUI's Madhya Pradesh coordinator Ravi Parmar, also one of the whistle-blowers in the nursing scam, said the police showed high-handedness to quell the protest. Parmar alleged Patwari, Chouksey and NSUI national president Varun Chaudhary were injured in a police lathi-charge and use of water cannons and tear gas shells against the protesters.
"We will lodge a complaint against the police action and state minister Vishwas Sarang for his alleged involvement in the nursing scam," Parmar said. A large number of party and NSUI workers gathered at the Congress office in Bhopal before noon and later headed to the CM's official residence.
The police had put up barricades a stone's throw away from the Congress headquarters, and protesters were stopped from marching ahead. As agitators tried climbing over the barricades and breaking the cordon, the police lobbed tear gas shells and used water cannons to disperse them.
Talking to reporters, Congress leader Patwari hit out at the ruling BJP. He said "The BJP is sending a message to the people of Madhya Pradesh that you vote for us, and we will keep spoiling the lives of your children. It is high time people rise against BJP's tyranny."
Congress veteran Kamal Nath condemned the police action against peaceful protesters as barbaric. In a post on social media site X, the former CM said it was a gross violation of people and the opposition's right to protest.
On May 30, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed reinspection of 169 nursing colleges, which were given a clean chit by the CBI in the scam, in light of two officers of the probe agency being caught allegedly taking bribes from institutions for favourable reports.
The HC also directed a committee headed by a retired high court judge to visit nursing colleges and hospitals with deficient infrastructure to assess the ground reality and submit its findings.
The central agency has arrested 13 people in connection with the scam-related cases. The CBI is probing the scam pertaining to gross irregularities in the functioning of several nursing colleges that lacked infrastructure while some existed only on paper.
In the past, the Congress had organised protests across MP over the nursing scam and also raised the issue in the budget session of the legislative assembly.
The grand old party is mulling moving the court in connection with the nursing scam and is seeking the resignation of state minister Sarang, who handled the medical education portfolio when the alleged scam took place.
