PATNA: Activists of political parties virtually hijacked the Bihar bandh call given by the All India Students Association (AISA) and other left wing students' organisations on Friday to protest alleged discrepancies in the railway recruitment examination results.
The activists from political outfits such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Jan Adhikar Party and three left parties came out on the roads, blocked vehicular traffic, burnt tyres and disrupted movement of trains at different locations across the state to vent their anger against the injustice meted out to railway job aspirants.
The majority of job seekers, however, kept themselves aloof from Friday's agitation on the persuasion of a private teacher Khan Sir, who released a video to appeal to the students not to be part of the Bihar bandh. “If you join the agitation, this may go against you,” he said in his one-minute video statement.
The protest started as early as 7 am when a group of activists led by RJD MLA from Mahua Mukesh Kumar Raushan blocked the road near Samashik Chowk at Hajipur, leading to a heavy jam at Gandhi Setu, which connects north Bihar with the state capital. The vehicles were standing in a queue since morning.
Another group of RJD workers led by a functionary Manju Singh put up a road blockade on the National Highway-22 near Bhagwanpur and disrupted vehicular traffic for hours. However, later police reached the spot and restored traffic on the busy road.
The protesters stopped the Sampark Kranti Super Fast train at Darbhanga railway station after squatting on the railway tracks with banners and posters. Reports of road blockades, processions, protest marches and arson poured in from Samastipur, Jehanabad, Araria, Bhojpur and Patna.
In Patna, hundreds of activists of the RJD and the Jan Adhikar Party, which is led by former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, indulged in arson and road blockade near Dak Bungalow Intersection, Ashok Raj Path, Bhikhna Pahari and other locations. They also forced the closure of shop and business establishments in the Fraser Road locality.
Additional director general (law and order) Sanjay Singh said, “So far no untoward incident has been reported from any part of the state during the bandh. The police headquarters is monitoring the situation. Police forces have been deployed at some sensitive locations as a precautionary measure.”
The protests continued for the fourth consecutive day on Friday despite a committee set up by the railway ministry to look into the grievances of the aspirants. BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said the railway recruitment board has agreed to conduct one test for one post.
On Thursday, the Patna district administration held a meeting with owners of different private coaching institutes to ensure that there was no reason for them to be worried. “Action will be initiated against those coaching institutes on the basis of evidence,” a coaching institute owner quoted the Patna district magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh as saying.
An FIR was lodged against six coaching institutes/teachers on charges of inciting job aspirants for protests on January 24. Khan Sir, a YouTuber, was among the six named accused in the police complaint lodged at Patrakar Nagar police station in Patna.
Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manavjeet Singh Dhillon said the agitation was digitally incited by some coaching institutes and students. “We have enough evidence to substantiate the charges against them,” he told the media on Thursday.