PATNA: The agitation to re-conduct Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) 70th combined (preliminary) competitive examination has gained momentum with students, political parties and students' organisations joining hands to extend their support to the examinees.
On Friday Independent MP from Purnea Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav on Friday disrupted rail and road traffic in the state capital and other places in support of their demand for re-test of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC)’s 70th combined (preliminary) competitive examination across the state.
Police also stopped a few left-wing student’ organisations from marching towards the CM’s residence. Members of some left-wing students’ organisations also had a scuffle with police after they were prevented from marching towards the chief minister's residence in the state capital, sources added.
Besides disrupting rail and road traffic in several parts of the state capital, Pappu's supporters also disrupted rail and road traffic in places like Araria, Purnea and Muzaffarpur. The protesters squatted on the tracks at Sachiwalay Halt railway station at around 9 am for some time, disrupting the movement of the Buxar-Fatuha passenger train for 20 minutes. Pappu’s supporters also burnt tyres on roads in the state capital and Purnea.
Pappu along with his supporters also took out a march from Sachiwalay Halt railway station to JP roundabout, where police stopped them from proceeding further.
Meanwhile, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor’s fast unto death continued on the second day on Friday. Kishor claimed that “thousands of crores of rupees changed hands” for vacant posts to be filled through BPSC exams. Besides demanding a high-level probe into the alleged irregularities and corruption in the BPSC preliminary examination and also re-examination, Kishor asked the state government to pay unemployment allowance to every unemployed youth between 18 and 35 years, a white paper on the investigation of irregularities and paper leaks in competitive examinations in the last 10 years. He also urged action to be taken against the culprits, action against officers responsible for police lathi charge on BPSC candidates, and implementation of domicile policy to ensure at least two-thirds share of Bihar youth in government jobs in the state.
Amid the BPSC candidates’ ongoing agitation in support of their demand for the cancellation of the BPSC preliminary examination, a verbal duel has also broken out between MP Pappu Yadav and Kishor as the former likened the Jan Suraaj Party leader to notorious conman, ‘Natwar Lal’.
“He (Kishor) is ‘Natwar Lal’, who sits on fast-unto-death in the evening after having lunch. Please don’t talk about him,” Pappu remarked while talking to media persons in Patna.
On the other hand, BPSC will conduct a re-test for the 70th Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination (CCE) at 22 centres in the state capital on Saturday. Patna district magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh said that the re-examination would be held for around 12,000 who had appeared in the examination at Bapu Examination Hall in the state capital on December 13. The re-test would be held as the examination was disrupted at the centre on that day.