NEW DELHI/PATNA : Protests continued across several states and 602 trains were cancelled, although no major incident of violence was reported as security was tightened in view of Monday’s Bharat Bandh called in protest against the Agnipath scheme.
Seeking to broaden the stir, the Samyukta Kisan Morach (SKM) said it would hold a countrywide protest against the scheme on June 24. Rakesh Tikait, the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), exhorted the youth, civil society and political parties to join Friday’s demonstration.
The BKU, which part of the SKM-led agitation against the now-withdrawn farm laws, had earlier called for a protest on June 30 against the Agnipath scheme. While the intensity of the protests was far less than the first three days of the violent agitation against the scheme, people resorted to blocking roads and railway tracks in Bihar, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Jammu and a few other states. A otal of 612 trains were affected, with the worst-affected zone being East Central Railway, headquartered at Hajipur in Bihar. In this zone, around 350 trains remain cancelled.
However, the deployment of large contingents of police in Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Kerala, among other states, prevented occurrence of untoward incidents. The Bharat Bandh, called by various organisations in Bihar, one of the worst hit by the violent protests, evoked mixed response. Barring a few incidents of road blockades, arson and protests, the bandh passed off peacefully amid tight security. A group of protestors squatted on railway tracks at Forbesganj rail station and put up a blockade near Subhash Chowk in Araria district.
In Patna, agitators tried to disrupt vehicular traffic at Danapur and indulged in arson and vandalism. However, alert police personnel intervened and brought the situation under control. The administration had closed all schools as a precautionary measure. Internet services remained shut across 20 districts in the state.
Protestors blocked roads in Haryana’s Fatehabad and Rohtak. In Delhi, some Youth Congress workers were detained after they blocked a train at the Shivaji Bridge station. The imposition of Section 144 in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana caused massive traffic snarls on the Noida-Delhi and the Gurugram-Delhi borders.
Schools continued to remain shut in Jharkhand even as the examinations for Class IX and XI remained deferred. The police in Punjab were ordered to monitor the activities of social media groups suspected to be mobilising or instigating youths against the Agnipath scheme.