RANCHI: The police on Tuesday resorted to lathi-charge and tear gas shells to disperse the crowd after the students protesting against the irregularities in the JSSC-CGL examination turned violent in Hazaribagh on Tuesday.
Thousands of students took to the streets demanding the cancellation of the results declared by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC) conducted on September 21 and 22 alleging huge irregularities.
Notably, Hazaribagh Bandh was called by the students on Tuesday under which the demonstration was being done. Students started marching peacefully from Matwari Gandhi Maidaan, reached Bharat Mata Chowk and blocked NH-33, due to which the vehicles remained stranded for over 10 kilometres on both sides for over four hours.
Since the students were not ready to recede, police applied light lathi-charge to disperse the crowd but the students started pelting stones on police leading to the damage of more than half a dozen vehicles. Finally, the police fired tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.
People from both the sides, the police and students, reportedly got injured in the incident.
According to Hazaribagh Sadar Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO), Ashok Kumar, despite a lot of persuasion, the situation went out of control and mild force was applied to disperse the crowd.
“Mild force had to be applied to disperse the crowd as students were pelting stones on the police,” said the SDO. The movement was being led by Uday Kumar Mehta and Mahendra Yadav of Barkattha against whom legal action will be taken, he added.
The SDO, however, said that the situation is under control. Other students leading the movement are also being identified and action will also be taken against them, he said.
According to the students, only 82 candidates qualified in the exam held on September 21, whereas 2178 passed in the exam held on September 22. They also alleged that the answers to the questions were available to many candidates even before the start of the first shift of examination on September 22.
Students have three point demands; first, JSSC-CGL exam should be cancelled immediately, secondly, transparency and fairness should be ensured in the examination process and lastly, high-level investigation should be conducted into the irregularities in the examination and recruitment, and strict action should be taken against the culprits.
Notably, JSSC-CGL examination had sparked controversy earlier also after the state government’s decision to disrupt the Internet services across the state for more than six hours for conducting the examinations on September 21 and 22. The internet services all over the state were restored on September 22 only after the intervention of Jharkhand High Court.
Meanwhile, known for his aggressive stance on issues concerning youth, Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) legislator Jairam Mahto also raised the issue of the JSSC-CGL examination in the Assembly and demanded that the government to address the students’ concerns through discussions on the matter.
Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi also demanded CBI inquiry after cancellation of the results.
“Thousands of students are accusing of irregularities in JSSC-CGL examination. Entire process of the exam should be investigated by CBI for the satisfaction of the students,” said Marandi. After the candidates passing in serial order, the doubts of irregularities in the CGL exam have deepened in the minds of the candidates, he added.