All India Students’ Union (AISA) and other youth organisations have called for ‘Bihar Bandh’ on Friday to protest the alleged irregularities in Railway Recruitment Board’s (RRB’s) NTPC stage 1 exam results. The students’ bodies termed the railway ministry’s move to form a committee to look into the concerns of the students as a “hoax”.
The railway ministry announced the suspension of Non-Technical Popular Categories (NTPC) and the Level 1 exams after job aspirants in Bihar and Jharkhand staged massive protests on Wednesday.
Four bogies of a train were set on fire by the protesters in Bihar’s Gaya.
The AISA and other youth organisations said in a press statement that the committee formed by the ministry is a “conspiracy” to postpone the matter till the elections in Uttar Pradesh.
They refused to bog down despite the assurance from the government, saying that this a massive movement of student youth, who are facing extreme unemployment.
The railway ministry set up the high-power committee to address the issues raised by job applicants. Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnav said the panel will submit its report before March 4.
Postponing the NTPC exams that were scheduled for next month, the Centre gave three weeks (till February 16) to job aspirants to submit their concerns.
During the protest on Wednesday, the job aspirants blocked the New Delhi-Kolkata main railway tracks. The agitations also spilled over to border areas in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
The Bihar Police said that railway properties were damaged in Gaya, Jehanabad, Bhagalpur, Sasaram, Samastipur and Chhapra districts. The protesters also pelted stones towards the cops.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday extended his support to the protesters, saying he is with them against the policies of the BJP government. He, however, said that violence is not the way.
The students who appeared for RRB’s NTPC exam had held a protest at the Bihar Sharif railway station on Tuesday too. They had blocked the Kolkata-New Delhi main railway line at Rajendra Nagar Terminal in Patna.
The job aspirants are opposed to the decision by the railways to hold the exam in two stages, claiming that the second stage is unfair to those who have cleared the first stage.
The results of the Computer Based Test-1 (CBT-1) exam, held last year, were released on January 15 for shortlisting the candidates for CBT-2.
Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Thursday slammed the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments, holding them responsible for prevailing poverty and unemployment in the state, a day after students staged a massive protest against the Railway exam results in Patna.
The BSP supremo pointed out the uproar that took place when the first Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test (UPTET) was held in Uttar Pradesh and now the RRB-NTPC result in Bihar.
In a tweet in Hindi today, Mayawati said, “There has been a huge uproar in UP and Bihar during the first UPTET and now the RRB-NTPC results of the Railways. This is proof of the failures of the governments. Beating up poor youths and unemployed youths for protesting, playing with their future is totally unjustified.”
“Due to the wrong policies of the government, poverty and unemployment have reached the peak. Government jobs and the facility of reservation in them have become secondary. In such a situation, it is unjust to not have the examination, even for a few government jobs for years. BJP has to change its narrow vision of selling pakoras to the youth,” she tweeted.
