Punjab: Congress workers replace CM's photos with PM's, arrested

Jalandhar: The president of the Punjab Youth Congress was on Friday arrested along with his supporters when they tried to replace photographs of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal with those of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the vehicles of the 108 ambulance service. However, they were later released.

Stating that the 108 ambulance scheme was centrally sponsored, the Congress had demanded that the posters be replaced, or they would do so themselves. Congress members on Friday attempted to replace the photos on the ambulances, but were deterred by the police.

"We had issued an ultimatum to the state government and asked them to see to it that it was the PM's photograph on all the Central government schemes. We had even said that we would ourselves affix the PM's photograph in case the state government failed to comply," Youth Congress president Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary said.

Stating that the 108 ambulance scheme was centrally sponsored, the Congress had demanded that Badal\'s posters be replaced.

"We had planned this photograph drive to be a state-wide affair. But wherever we managed to put up the PM's photo, police arrived to tear it off," Chaudhary said. He said the police stopped them for replacing the photos and claimed that party workers were arrested. "Where our party workers were not arrested, police contrived to hide away the ambulances themselves," he claimed.

The Youth Congress president, who was later produced in court along with his associates by the police before getting released, has now demanded action against officials who had torn off Manmohan Singh's photos saying it was an insult to the Prime Minister. Law enforcement officials, however, declined to offer any comments regarding this complaint.

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