Congress youth wing protests 'anti-youth' policies, over 12 held in Jammu and Kashmir

SRINAGAR: Over a dozen Congress activists were taken into preventive custody after the youth wing of the party took to the streets here to protest against the alleged anti-youth policies of the PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Led by Pradesh Youth Congress president Pranav Shagotra, a group of party activists assembled at the Maulana Azad Road headquarters of the party and later tried to take out a rally.

"The rally was part of 'Yuva Akrosh Yatra', a mass movement organised by the Pradesh Youth Congress against the failure of the Centre and state government to address the problems being faced by the educated unemployed youth and polarisation," a Congress spokesman said.

He said this is the final phase of the yatra which covered various parts of Jammu and Ladakh regions in the first phase.

The activists raised slogans against the ruling PDP-BJP alliance and were halted by police near the College of Education along the Mualana Azad Road and asked to disperse.

However, when they ignored and tried to continue with the march, police took over a dozen of them including Shagotra into preventive custody, officials said.

Earlier, Shagotra addressed the gathering and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of making false promises to the people of the country.

Criticising the state government, he demanded revocation of the new recruitment policy and urged the government to adopt "fair and merit-based policy" for recruitment of the educated youth.

"This Yatra is also aimed at expressing solidarity with the thousands of daily wagers and National Youth Corps and ITI trained youth across the state," he said.