Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that his Government would not stop students from protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and other controversial actions of the Central Government, but would not allow the State’s peace to be disturbed at any cost.

Referring to the proposed January 1 statewide protest by left aligned student unions against the CAA, as well as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), the Chief Minister said that protest was the democratic right of every citizen of India and people, including students, were within their right to stage peaceful dharna, march etc against these draconian initiatives of the Central Government, as long as such protests were conducted peacefully.

“Even my Government is totally opposed to CAA, NRC etc in view of the fundamentally divisive and discriminatory nature of the legislation or action initiated by the BJP-led Government at the Centre,” said Capt Amarinder.

He said: “In fact, during an anti-CAA dharna, organized by the Punjab Congress in Ludhiana on Monday, I had reiterated the Government’s decision not to allow the controversial legislation to be implemented in the State under any circumstances.”

There was, thus, no question, of barring students from coming out against these actions of the Central Government, said the Chief Minister, making it clear that as long as the protestors did not take the law in their hands in any manner, the police would not prevent them from carrying out their proposed campaign.However, the Chief Minister warned that “no violence or destruction of public property would be tolerated during the planned protest”.

“The police have been directed to come down heavily against any attempt by the protestors to vandalize public property or otherwise indulge in any violence during their protest,” he added.

Capt Amarinder also urged the student leaders to ensure that proposed protest is carried out peacefully, and to keep a check for possible infiltration of goonda elements among the protestors.

Notably, the peaceful protests in some other states had ended up in violence due to such infiltrations.

The chief minister said that the police will maintain a strict vigil not just in and around the university campuses but in other sensitive areas and public places across the state, throughout the day.