On May 10, CPI(ML) Liberation, AISA and RYA organized statewide protests in Bihar against the brutal police lathicharge on BPSC School Teachers TRE-4 aspirants who were demonstrating in Patna on May 8 demanding recruitment, employment and teacher appointments. Protesters burnt effigies of Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary at district headquarters across Bihar.
Demonstrations and effigy burning programmes were held in Patna, Begusarai, Arrah, Siwan, Darbhanga, Gaya, Bihar Sharif, Samastipur and several other district centres. In Patna, a large number of students and youth gathered at GPO Golambar and raised slogans against the government over the repression unleashed on job-seeking youth.
Addressing the gathering, speakers condemned the attack on TRE-4 aspirants and said that the youth who would tomorrow shoulder the responsibility of the country’s education system are today being chased and beaten on the streets like criminals. They said several aspirants suffered serious head injuries in the lathicharge, dozens were injured and women aspirants faced cruel and inhuman treatment at the hands of the police.
The leaders termed the police action a state-sponsored crackdown on youth raising demands for employment and democratic rights. They said Bihar has lakhs of vacant posts and government schools continue to face an acute shortage of teachers, yet the government is refusing to release fresh recruitment vacancies and instead is responding with police repression.
They further said the BJP-JDU government has completely failed to provide employment to the youth of Bihar. Whenever students and unemployed youth take to the streets demanding jobs, education and their rights, the government attempts to crush these movements through police force, they said.
CPI(ML), AISA and RYA demanded immediate release of TRE-4 vacancies, fulfilment of all legitimate demands of the aspirants, action against officials responsible for the lathicharge and proper treatment and compensation for injured candidates.
