Bhubaneswar: The members of Odisha Youth Congress engaged in a scuffle with police while taking out a rally to gherao Assembly over rising fuel price and unemployment in the state.
OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik, All India Youth Congress president Srinivas BV, AICC member Rudra Raju, Smrutiranjan Lenka, Mohammad Moquim and several other leaders were part of the Samabesh.
State Youth Congress members took out an ‘Akrosha Samabesha’ rally protesting unemployment and rising fuel prices. However, police who were present at the spot stopped them near Lower PMG while they were marching towards the Assembly.
The Congress activists, including national-level leaders, broke the barricade and attempted to enter the Assembly that ended with a face-off between police and the Youth Congress members.
The protestors were taken into preventive custody by police to prevent the situation from flaring up.
Srinivas called upon Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to keep party’s promise of providing jobs to the youth. When questioned about their failed effort to gherao the Assembly, Srinivas said the party activists will take bullets and bear the lathi charge by police but will not back-up on our demands of jobs for the unemployed and rolling back of fuel price.