Several BSP leaders were today arrested for staging dharna against the alleged non-implementation of Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme by some private colleges in Punjab.
Following the arrests, BSP activists along with radical Sikh groups and SC girl students of colleges organised a dharna and blocked Phagwara-Nakodar road near National Highway 1.
Former Punjab BSP General Secretary Jarnail Nangal along with president of local unit of BSP Student Front Pardeep Mall, party activists Rajinder Kler and Balbir Singh Thakur, and President of Punjab Ambedkar Sena Mool Nivasi Harbhajan Suman were arrested this morning under Sections 107/151 (threat to public order and peace) of CrPc, police said.
The party leaders were presented in the court of Sub-divisional Magistrate Balbir Raj Singh, who sent them into judicial custody, police said, adding Mall was released on bail today.
Separate cases under Sections 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation), 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by public servant) of IPC and Sections 3/4 of Pollution Control Act were also registered against these leaders, police said.
Jarnail Nangal had spearheaded the agitation over the non-implementation of Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme by organizing a demonstration and a dharna outside residence of local MLA Som Parkash here yesterday.
He had threatened to intensify the stir if the scheme was not implemented in totality and SC/BC/OBC students were not issued roll numbers today, or were harassed under the garb of the scheme.
A number of BSP activists, led by party's Block Samiti member Sukhwinder Singh Shergill and supported by radical Sikh groups, took out a protest march after his arrest.
They first staged a brief demonstration outside the office of SP Ashwani Kumar in local Town Hall and then sat on dharna, blocking traffic on the Phagwara-Nakodar road near National Highway 1.
However, the international Sada-e-Sarhad Buses, plying between India and Pakistan, passed here normally as the traffic on NH1 continued to flow as usual, police said.
Meanwhile, another group of party activists blocked traffic on local Hoshiarpur road.
Police diverted traffic on the two sites of the blockade.
A deputation of BSP leaders, including its former state General Secretary Sukhwinder Kotli, left for Kapurthala to meet Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rajinder Singh.
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Meanwhile, the agitating BSP activists lifted their five-hour dharna after Phagwara Sub-Divisional Magistrate Balbir Raj Singh granted bail to the four party leaders, including its former state General Secretary Jarnail Nangal, today.
Police said that the SDM had issued the release orders after accepting bail bonds of landed property furnished by those who had given their bails.
DSP Manpreet Singh Dhillon confirmed that the bail release orders had been issued by the SDM.
He further disclosed that the leaders had themselves denied to get bail.
"However, when their supporters/relatives furnished the bail bonds of landed property, the SDM issued the release orders this afternoon," said the DSP.
Nangal and others were sent to Kapurthala jail following their arrests.
The agitators, who were protesting the arrests of the BSP leaders, did not disturb traffic flow on NH1 even though they had sat on dharna just a few feet away from it, police said.
They lifted the blockade after their leaders announced that the release orders of Nangal and three others were being issued, police said.
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Meanwhile, local MLA and chief parliamentary secretary Som Parkash today urged the Centre to immediately release an amount of Rs 245 crore to be disbursed as post-matric scholarships among students belonging to the Scheduled Castes.
In a letter to the Union government, Parkash mentioned that Rs 245 crore was still pending which was to be given during the last financial year.
He urged the Central government to release last year's as well as this year's amount due so that it could be given to the beneficiaries without any further delay.
The CPS said that although the private colleges could not be compelled to admit scheduled castes students without charging any fee, but the same fee could be deposited from the funds allocated for the Post-Matric Scholarships and the rising unrest amongst the students could be checked at the same time.
He suggested that on similar lines as the private Sugar Mills have been supported by the Punjab government for procuring loans to be paid to the farmers, the Punjab government should also facilitate the students belonging to scheduled castes to get monetary help in the form of soft loans from the banks.
Meanwhile, Parkash also made a fervent appeal to the parents and students of the Scheduled Castes families not to get carried away with any provocative propaganda of divisive forces as the government was already in the process of getting the funds released by the Union government.
