Kokrajhar/Guwahati, Aug. 26: Bad weather poured cold water on Bodo hopes of a date with the Prime Minister today. As if this was not enough, a stampede at the venue of the scheduled public meeting left 10 persons injured.

Braving incessant rain, over 10,000 people — mainly school and college students — had conglomerated at Debergaon from different parts of Kokrajhar district to listen to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

But his programme had already been cancelled by then — for the second time since yesterday when he missed the public meeting in Nagaon, also because of bad weather.

After it was officially announced that the Prime Minister’s programme had been cancelled, the organisers asked the people to get their packet lunch from a truck parked near the gate.

Suddenly, there was a mad rush as people jostled and pushed each other on the slippery ground to collect the packets being distributed by BTC authorities.

Some youths were seen climbing onto the truck to snatch the packets even as the volunteers caned them.

Ten persons, three of them women, were injured in the scuffle.

“It was a Somalia-like situation with people, young and old, pushing and pulling each other for the packets. The way the packets were thrown from the truck triggered the incident,” an onlooker said.

Police, however, took control of the situation promptly.

Later, BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary said the Prime Minister had promised to visit Kokrajhar in a few months to lay the foundation stone of Kokrajhar University and announce packages for the BTC.

“The Prime Minister, who was scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the university, will do so in a few months. He also assured us that he would enhance the BTC package from Rs 500 crore to another Rs 300 crore for three years,” he added.

In Guwahati last night, the Prime Minister assured the state cabinet of an integrated development package for Assam, including setting up of models schools in every block, a centre of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, a science city in the city, a law school and a judicial academy.

He said two India Reserve Battalions would be raised and the BSF would set up fixed border outposts in the riverine areas to strengthen river patrolling.

The Union tourism ministry would make a blueprint for integrated development of tourism in the Northeast with Guwahati as the hub, he added.

A delegation of the FiNER also met Singh last night to apprise him of issues pertaining to industry and commerce in the region.

The Prime Minister ended his two-day tour of Assam today after inaugurating an auditorium at the IIT Guwahati where he addressed the students and faculty.