Animal Husbandry Polytechnic diploma holders stormed the premises of municipal water tank complex located opposite to the Animal Husbandry Department headquarters on M.G. Road here on Thursday threatening to end lives if the government continued to ignore their pleas.
Under the banner of AP Veterinary Polytechnic Unemployed Diploma Holders Association, tens of candidates who had completed the two-year course long ago staged a protest demanding that the government immediately fill the vacant Veterinary Assistant posts with AH Polytechnic diploma holders and change the course duration from two years to three years.
The police had a tough time pacifying the protesters as some of them climbed the water tank in an attempt to jump off. Girl students held blades and a youth poured petrol on himself and tried to set himself ablaze before police stopped him. Another youth inflicted minor cuts on his wrist with a blade.
The protesters said that their appeals to the officials concerned went unheard for long. They said that though over a thousand AH Polytechnic diploma holders were passing out, the government never bothered to fill the vacant posts. The Machavaram police detained the protesters and moved them to various police stations.