CHENNAI: The Agnipath protests spread to the city where more than 500 Army aspirants gathered at Island Grounds on Saturday demanding that the Union government repeal the scheme, while train disruptions in Telangana and in northern parts of the country made travel uncertain. Railways cancelled and restored the trains to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and also advised people to watch the schedules before reaching railway stations.
Travel to destinations in the north remained uncertain as trains are being diverted avoiding Visakhapatnam and Secunderabad due to the continuing protests in Telangana. Air fare to Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Patna are in the range of ₹7,000 to ₹11,000. Railways has restored the few trains that were cancelled on Friday due to disruption caused by the Agnipath protests.
Railways issued an advisory that all trains to destinations in Bihar and eastern UP will be short terminated due to widespread agitation and informed passengers that travel should be planned after checking train schedules. Trains were either cancelled or short terminated making the services unreliable in the coming days.
The aspirants protested first in front of the Secretariat on Saturday, as many of them had appeared for a physical test and certificate verification as part of an army recruitment drive in 2019. However, the Common Entrance Exam (CEE) was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The agitators alleged that the central government had not mentioned about relaxing the age limit for those who appeared for a physical test in 2019. “We won’t come under the new Agnipath scheme. We came here to visit the army recruitment office located at the Secretariat to inquire about our plight. Police are not letting us inside the office,” said Manohara Pandian of Arani near Tiruvannamalai, who lives in Madipakkam.
The protesters holding placards raised slogans. The placards read: “We want the Army to conduct the pending CEE. Go back, Agnipath.”
North Chennai additional commissioner of police T S Anbu held talks with the protesters. However, they refused to leave. Subsequently, police detained protesters at the RR Stadium in Egmore.
A senior police officer said, “Protesters were counselled about their future. If they refuse to calm down, we will slap a case on them.” After the protesters cooperated with police, they were let off. As per their request, police arranged a few MTC buses to drop them at the Koyambedu bus terminus.
Earlier in the day, police had beefed up security at Chennai Central and Egmore railway stations.
