Why Hundreds of Police Aspirants are Taking to Patna’s Streets in Protest

Patna: On Thursday, hundreds of aspirants staged a protest in Patna demanding either a CBI inquiry into the alleged leak of question papers of the Bihar police sub-inspector (SI) recruitment examination, or a cancellation of the test altogether.

With placards, banners and carrying national flags in their hands, hundreds of SI- aspirants wearing black badges on their head?? took to the streets, disrupting traffic for hours on busy roads in Bihar’s capital.The protesters also shouted slogans against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and warned him of youths opposing him in state assembly polls to take place later this year.

Mukesh Kumar Singh, one of the protesting SI-aspirants told NewsClick of their demands for a CBI probe into the leak and added that the “NDA government led by Nitish Kumar is indifferent and ignoring our demands. This is against the youth who are aspirants for different government jobs,” he added.

Sanjay Rai, another protester said that the Bihar government under CM Kumar has failed to conduct any job recruitment examination which has been free from leakage, cheating and corrupt practices. “Youths are unhappy and angry over government’s failure to conduct free and fair job recruitment examinations,” he said.

According to Singh and Rai, close to 2000 SI aspirants have been protesting today and have threatened to intensify their agitation over the coming days if the Government ignores their demands. They said that the Government should take their protest seriously because questions and their answer keys were leaked on social media even before examination commenced.

On February 4, more than 500 SI-aspirants staged a protest in Patna and went on a rampage. They pelted stones at police resulting in two officers being injured. Following that the police lathi-charged them, used tear gas and water canons to disperse them while detaining some protesters as well.

These aspirants have been expressing their displeasure after results of the preliminary examination conducted by Bihar Police Subordinate Selection Commission (BPSSC) were declared on January 28. Exams were conducted in two shifts across 495 centres on December 22. At least 5.85 lakh candidates appeared in the examination for 2446 posts of Police Sub-Inspector, Sergeant and Assistant Jail Superintendent.

Just last month, aspiring teachers and aspirants for Bihar Public Service Commission jobs staged a protest in Patna against a delay in conducting examinations.

The Unemployment Rate among rural as well as urban youths in impoverished Bihar is among the highest in the country. With the next assembly polls a few months away, the ruling BJP-JDU coalition may face the anger of the youth population.