Cops cane students protesting for scholarships

PUDUCHERRY: The police on Thursday resorted to a lathi charge to disperse the students of a government college who had resorted to a road blockade to demand the release of the post-matric scholarship.Earlier, around 80 scheduled caste students of Tagore Arts College picketed the Adi Dravidar Welfare Department, locked the gates of the office and did not allow the officials inside to come out.Police officials from D’Nagar station rushed to the spot and tried to pacify them through talks. The students, despite the attempt insisted on meeting the Welfare Minister P Rajavelu and refused to budge.They then came on to the road in front of the Adi Dravidar department, Kamarajar Salai and staged a blockade as a result of which traffic came to a halt for nearly an hour.As the public and commuters became restless, police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the crowd. Four students were arrested.SP (South) T Bairavasamy said the police dispersed the students using minimum force as the public was disturbed by the disruption of traffic. The director of the Adi Dravidar Welfare department G Anbazhagan was not present in the office as he was away attending a meeting. When contacted, he said that his department had cleared all the applications received till Feb 23 this year. He said the colleges were requested to send the applications for the post-matric scholarship by Sept 2011 and some of the colleges had sent them late.Anbazhagan said the students, instead of locking the gate of the offices, should have waited for his arrival and added that steps would be taken to ensure the disbursement at the earliest.