Bihar police used lathi-charge and water cannons to disperse protesters demanding the cancellation of the state Public Service Commission (BPSC) exam held in Patna on December 13.
According to reports, thousands of students gathered at Gandhi Maidan in the state capital and later tried to match towards the chief minister’s residence, prompting police to take action.
#WATCH | Bihar | BPSC aspirants continue their protest in Patna's Gandhi Maidan, demanding a re-exam to be held for the 70th BPSC prelims pic.twitter.com/a0iiVJK9PN
— ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2024
Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishore briefly joined the protest in the afternoon.
"We requested the students protesting to vacate the place but they didn't listen to us...We also said that they can put forward their demands, and we are ready to listen to them. They also pushed us after which we used water cannon on them," Patna SP Sweety Sahrawat said.
District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh said the protesters gathered at Gandhi Maidan despite the administration's warning that any demonstration there would be considered unauthorised.
“The district police has registered an FIR against 21 known persons, including Prashant Kishore, his party president Manoj Bharti, city-based tutor Ramanshu Mishra and 600-700 unknown persons for organising a gathering of students at Gandhi Maidan even after denial of permission by the authorities", he said.
Kishore alleged that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on a private visit to Delhi, but had no time to spend for the youth in his own state.
"The CM does not have time to listen to the grievances of the protesting aspirants and has gone to Delhi. The protest will continue till their demand for the cancellation of the exam is not accepted. I am always with the protesting students", he said.
The protesting students are demanding the cancellation of the Integrated Combined (Preliminary) Competitive Examination (CCE) 2024 conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on December 13.
