Click to play videoNew Delhi: In a daring suicide bid, four disillusioned youth consumed poison in Karnataka's Gulbarga district at a function where President APJ Abdul Kalam was present.
When Kalam arrived at the venue, the youth after making a vain attempt to get his 's attention demanding jobs, consumed poison.
All four were immediately rushed to the civil hospital following the commotion and were declared out of danger.
The men, aged between 20 and 25 years, were identified as Suresh Mallikarjun, Suresh Dhole, Mallinath Gurunath and Manjunath Shankar. They were trainees with the state-run electricity board and were later terminated.
They wanted to personally hand over a petition to President Kalam at the inaugural function of the Swarna Gramodaya scheme of the Karnataka government.
However, after being stopped at the gates by security guards, these men took poison as an act of desperation.
"The four youths in mid-twenties were rushed to a district hospital at Srinivas Saradgi, about 50 km from Gulbarga, for treatment. They are out of danger after they were administered medicine to eject the liquid phenyl they consumed," Karnataka Director General of Police Srinivasan was quoted by news agencies as saying.
He added, "It was a pre-meditated act meant to draw the attention of the president and other dignitaries on the dais rather than a suicide bid."
According to eyewitnesses, even as police tried to control the four and pull them out of the meeting, they drank the poison from small bottle each of them was carrying.
"The incident took place when Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was addressing the gathering. The youths were shouting anti-government slogans and held state Power Minister H.D. Revenna responsible for denying them jobs in the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL)," an eyewitness were quoted as saying.
Gulbarga is one of the most backward areas in Karnataka and the youths were demanding that government fill up backlog vacancies employment scheme.
President Kalam is presently on his way back to New Delhi.
In Gulbarga, he urged corporates and NGOs to become partners in development of villages, amd launched Karnataka's ambitious scheme for transforming rural areas into a hub of economic activity, from a remote village of Srinivasa Saradgi in this backward Gulbarga district.
Under the state's new rural development initiative, plans have been drawn up to upgrade physical environment, increasing productive capacity of agriculture and other land based activities, besides opening up avenues for non-agricultural employment and community building activity in selected 1,000 villages at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore annually.
The project was based on the suggestion mooted by Kalam in his address to the joint sitting of the state's legislature to mark the golden jubilee of Karnataka's formation during December 2005, exhorting the government to implement PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas).
(With agency inputs)
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