By Express News Service
PATNA: Protest over the Centre’s ‘Agnipath’ scheme for short-term recruitment of Army personnel unfold to different districts of Bihar on Thursday. Braving scorching solar, tons of of Army aspirants put up street blockades, burnt tyres and disrupted motion of trains in Jehanabad, Nawada and Saharsa districts in early hours of Thursday.
Reports mentioned the job seekers put up a street blockade and held demonstration close to Prajatantra Chowk in Nawada city. They later proceeded in the direction of railway station, squatted on tracks and disrupted motion of trains. As a consequence, a number of trains, together with Howrah-Gaya Express and Gaya-Kiul passenger remained stranded at Warsaliganj and Tilaiya railway stations, respectively. Nawada sub-divisional Umesh Kumar Bharti together with different officers rushed to the spot and tried to take away the protestors, who weren’t in a temper to relent.
Sub-divisional police officer Upendra Prasad mentioned efforts had been on to pacify the protestors and restore site visitors on the route. “We have sought additional forces to deal with the situation,” he mentioned.
#WATCH | Bihar: Youth show in Chhapra, burn tyres and vandalise a bus in protest in opposition to the not too long ago introduced #AgnipathRecruitmentScheme pic.twitter.com/Ik0pYK26KY
— ANI (@ANI) June 16, 2022
Similar protests by job aspirants had been held in Saharsa and Jehanabad districts. The district authorities deployed armed police forces to deliver the state of affairs underneath management. Alarmed over protest spreading to different districts, the state police headquarters alerted all of the SPs and requested them to initiative preventive steps accordingly.
Earlier on Wednesday, hhundreds of job aspirants took to the streets and blocked National Highway 28 in Muzaffarpur by burning heaps of tyres and hoardings. They additionally squatted on railway tracks at Buxar railway station on Howrah-New Delhi line. The protesting job aspirants claimed that their profession can be jeopardised if Agnipath scheme was applied as solely as much as 25 per cent of the recruits or Agniveers could get common fee.
Regular recruitment rallies had been stopped round two years in the past after the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. After two years of ready for the common recruitment, the federal government has supplied them the short-term recruitment scheme, which can solely create uncertainties of their lives, job aspirants had been heard shouting in protest throughout the state.
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“Bharti do ya arthi do’ (recruit us or kill us) was among the many slogans because 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, tons of of individuals laced with wood sticks took to the streets and registered their protest exterior the Army recruitment workplace. Later, they blocked a street in Maripur by burning tyres. They additionally insisted that an Army officer ought to come to the spot and hearken to their grievances.
In Buxar, demonstrators squatted close to parcel godown of Buxar railway station, disrupting the motion of a practice for at the least one hour. Later, they cleared the tracks following intervention by the RPF, GRP and district police personnel. A protester mentioned, “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 mentioned, “What can we do in these just four years as even MPs and MLAs get five-year term.”
In Begusarai too, NCC cadets and youths getting ready for Army jobs put a street blockade at Har Har Mahadev roundabout. They additionally carried placards demanding rollback of the Agnipath scheme and revival of the outdated recruitment course of.