The ‘Bihar Bandh’ was largely peaceful with scattered incidents of protesters clashing with police personnel.
Students’ outfits observed a statewide ‘Bandh’ in Bihar on Friday. The call for a ‘Bihar Bandh’ was issued by students protesting against the format of exams conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB).
The ‘Bihar Bandh’ was largely peaceful with scattered incidents of protesters clashing with police personnel.
Movement of traffic, however, was affected in parts of the state as supporters of the ‘Bandh’ placed burning tyres at crossroads in cities and on highways. Passengers also reported some delays with trains running from Patna Junction.
There were also reports of police apprehending supporters of the Bandh who were trying to intimidate shopkeepers into closing their shutters. However, no arrests have been made in this regard as of yet.
Protests erupted earlier this month after the Railway Recruitment Board declared the result of entrance tests for Non-Technical Popular Category (NTPC). A notification for this examination was first advertised about three years ago.
Aspirants who appeared for the first Computer-Based Test (CBT) say the Railways Recruitment Board is far from completing the selection process for 30,000 vacancies for NTPC.
They are also opposing the RRB’s decision to introduce an extra screening test for Group D. These jobs are not of a highly-skilled nature and a complex selection process is unnecessary, said many who took part in the ‘Bihar Bandh’ on Friday.