BPSC protest: Bihar cops crack down on aspirants

Police lathicharged and used water cannons to disperse protesters demanding the cancellation of the Bihar Public Service Commission BPSC exam held here on December 13The protesters who were joined earlier in the day by Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor at Gandhi Maidan attempted to march towards the chief ministerrsquos residence in the evening prompting police to take action Patna district magistrate Chandrashekhar Singh saidThe protesters also tried to jump over barricades while marching from Gandhi Maidan towards JP Golumber he added Kishor who arrived in the afternoon and left after about an hour criticised Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for ldquogoing to Delhi on a private visit but having no time for the youth of his own staterdquoThe candidates who have been protesting for days are seeking the cancellation of the 70th Integrated Combined Competitive Examination CCE due to allegations of a question paper leak in all centres arguing that reexamination in just one centre would be unfairFIR against 700Police on Monday registered an FIR against 600700 individuals including Prashant Kishor for unauthorised gathering instigating people and creating law and order issues in Gandhi MaidanldquoJan Suraaj Party was denied permission to organise Chhatra Sansad in front of the Gandhi statue However a crowd gathered at the Gandhi statue and created a law and order problem A scuffle broke out between the crowd and policerdquo Patna district administration said in a statementldquoAn FIR has been registered in Gandhi Maidan police station against 600700 people including Jan Suraaj Chief Prashant Kishor on charges of unauthorized gathering of crowd instigating people and creating law and order problemsrdquo it addedOn Sunday speaking to the media Kishor said that his party would support students if injustice is done to them He claimed that ldquothousands of crores of rupees have changed handsrdquo for posts to be filled up by the Bihar PSC exam cancellation of which is being demanded by many candidatesDec 13Day BPSC exams were heldBJP hiding paper leak CongressAccusing the BJP of spreading a web of paper leak mafia across the country that is ruining the future of the youth the Congress on Monday alleged that the brutal lathicharge on BPSC candidates in Patna was carried out to hide paper leak and rigging Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge condemned the lathicharge on students protesting against the cancellation of the Bihar Public Service Commission BPSC examination terming it an attempt to break the morale of the students by using force ldquoWhen rigging is detected the BJP shamelessly denies or tries to silence the youth by lathicharging themrdquo Kharge claimed in a post in Hindi on X More than 70 papers have been leaked in the past seven years Kharge alleged adding that the future of 328 lakh youth who took the BPSC exam is hanging in the balance Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also alleged that the ldquodoubleenginerdquo BJP government in Bihar has become a symbol of ldquodouble atrocitiesrdquo on youthThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever