A near-stampede occurred at the Raja Balwant Singh Inter College on Sunday, where a crowd of 10,000 had gathered to submit documents for Kanya Vidya Dhan - a cash scheme to boost education among girls. Five girls fainted and nearly a dozen girls sustained injuries.

Alleging mismanagement at the venue, the girls later blocked traffic at the Mahatama Gandhi Marg.

Though the submission of documents was to begin at 2 pm, girls had started gathering at the venue since early morning. By noon, the crowd had swelled to 10,000.

When the gates opened at 1.45 pm, the jostling began, ending almost in a stampede. Inside the venue, the 10 counters opened appeared insufficient. Policemen had to resort to lathicharge and the authorities called off the event around 3.30 pm.

"There was no proper management, the authorities were ill-prepared," said Rekha, one of the applicants. "The school gates were closed till 2pm and we had to for hours."

Thousands of girls who could not submit forms later hit the street, stalling traffic. The crowd even tried to gherao the district inspector of school Rajesh Kumar. "We had called 2,300 girls for enrollment, but more than 10,000 turned up," said Kumar. "That was why things went out of control."