The police have registered a complaint against six teachers of coaching institutes in Patna and hundreds of students across Bihar for their violent protests over a railway recruitment exam.
Some student organisations, meanwhile, have called for a ‘Bihar bandh’ on January 28 to protest alleged irregularities in the exam.
An FIR has been lodged against coaching institute teacher Faizal Khan, popularly known as “Khan Sir” among students in the State, and five other coaching institute teachers for allegedly inciting students to protest.
Some of the teachers named in the complaint, however, said that they had appealed to students to keep away from such protests, as damaging government property was a punishable act.
“Still, the police booked us,” they said.
Among the teachers named in the complaint are S.K. Jha, Gagan Pratap and Gopal Verma.
The police have also booked hundreds of unidentified students in Patna, Nawada, Bhojpur, Sitamarhi, Buxar, Muzaffarpur and other places where there were protests and railway property was allegedly damaged.
In Jehanabad, protesting students burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on railway tracks and raised slogans against the government.
The angry protest of the students affected the movement of several trains under East Central Zone, causing inconvenience to passengers.
Bandh call
Meanwhile, the All Indian Students Union and other youth organisations have called for a ‘Bihar bandh’ on January 28 to protest alleged irregularities in the railway recruitment exam.
The student bodies have also called the Railway Ministry’s move to form a committee to look into their concerns a “hoax”.
Thousands of students gathered on railway tracks and at stations on January 25 to protest irregularities in the Railway Recruitment Board’s Non-Technical Popular Categories (RRB-NTPC) Exam, 2021.
At some places such as Gaya, the protesting students set bogies of train on fire and damaged railway property and were caned by police personnel.
About 1.25 crore students had applied for the exam that had advertised over 35,000 posts with initial salaries ranging from ₹19,900 to ₹35,400 per month.
Around 60 lakh students had appeared for the exam.
The angry students were protesting against a decision by the Railways to hold the exam in two stages.
“The second stage of the exam is totally unfair to those who have cleared the first stage and for which results were released on January 15,” they said.
The Railways has set-up a high-powered committee to look into the grievances of protesting students.
