Patna: Protest over the central government's Agnipath scheme for short-term recruitment of Army personnel spread to other districts of Bihar on Thursday. Braving the scorching sun, hundreds of job aspirants put up road blockades, burnt tyres and disrupted the movement of trains in Jehanabad, Nawada and Saharsa districts in the early hours of Thursday.
Reports said the job seekers put up a road blockade and held a demonstration near Prajatantra Chowk in Nawada town. They later proceeded towards the railway station, squatted on tracks and disrupted the movement of trains. As a result, several trains, including Howrah-Gaya Express and Gaya-Kiul passengers remained stranded at Warsaliganj and Tilaiya railway stations, respectively.
Nawada sub-divisional Umesh Kumar Bharti along with other officials rushed to the spot and tried to remove the protestors, who were not in a mood to relent.
Sub-divisional police officer Upendra Prasad said efforts were on to pacify the protestors and restore traffic on the route. “We have sought additional forces to deal with the situation,” he said.
Similar protests by job aspirants were held in Saharsa and Jehanabad districts. The district authorities deployed armed police forces to bring the situation under control. Alarmed over the protest spreading to other districts, the state police headquarters alerted all the SPs and asked them to initiate preventive
steps accordingly.
Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of job aspirants took to the streets and blocked National Highway 28 in Muzaffarpur by burning heaps of tyres and hoardings. They also squatted on railway tracks at Buxar railway station on the Howrah-New Delhi line.
Job aspirants claim that their career would be jeopardised if the Agnipath scheme was implemented as only up to 25 per cent of the recruits or Agniveers may get a regular commission.
Regular recruitment rallies were stopped around two years ago after the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. After two years of waiting for the regular recruitment, the government has offered them a short-term recruitment scheme, which will only create uncertainties in their lives, job aspirants were heard shouting in protest across the state.
““Bharti do ya arthi do' (recruit us or kill us) was among the slogans as the protesting jobseekers burnt tyres and hoardings in heaps on NH-28 in Muzaffarpur, which connects Bihar's Barauni with Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.
In Muzaffarpur, hundreds of people laced with wooden sticks took to the streets and registered their protest outside the Army recruitment office. Later, they blocked a road in Maripur by burning tyres. They also insisted that an Army officer should come to the spot and listen to their grievances.
In Buxar, demonstrators squatted near parcel go-down of Buxar railway station, disrupting the movement of a train for at least one hour. Later, they cleared tracks following intervention by the RPF, GRP and district police personnel.
A protester said, “The army should raise the age bar as youths have lost two years due to the pandemic.”
"The government is playing a game with us like PUBG," quipped a protester.
Another protester in Buxar said, “What can we do in these just four years as even MPs and MLAs get five-year terms.” In Begusarai too, NCC cadets and youths preparing for Army jobs put a road blockade at the Har-Har Mahadev roundabout. They also carried placards, demanding rollback of the Agnipath scheme and revival of the old recruitment process.