By IANS,
Chandigarh: Dozens of people were injured Thursday as Punjab Youth Congress activists fought pitched battles with police in this union territory, police said.
The police cane-charged, fired tear gas shells and sprayed water cannons to stop the Congress workers from reaching the Punjab state assembly complex in Sector 1 to protest the alleged failure of the Akali Dal-led government to take any measures for the welfare of the youth.
The protestors and police were seen stone-pelting each other as the mayhem continued near the memorial complex of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in Sector-42. The clash went on for over two hours.
A spokesman of the Youth Congress later claimed that over 50 protestors were injured in the police action, one of them seriously.
He said the police also registered a case against the organisation’s president and MP Ravneet Singh Bittu.
He said the police action had led to damage to nearly 50 vehicles of the activists. He said five tractor-trolleys, on which activists had made tableaux to highlight the problems being faced by the people of Punjab, were also damaged.
Officials said some police personnel were also injured in the stone-pelting.
The local authorities had imposed a ban on assembly of five or more people in some parts of the city Wednesday as President Pratibha Devisingh Patil was visiting the city.
Bittu later said that the Punjab government had failed on all fronts.
He said the budget for 2011-12 presented this week fudged figures. He said people in the state were reeling under massive power cuts and the situation would get worse during the peak summer months.