Unemployed youth, mainly government job aspirants seeking completion of recruitment process to various posts, opening of further vacancies and resolution of OBC quota row among others, were chased around the Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal on Sunday and allegedly detained in the evening by police.
The youth, who marched on foot from Indore to Bhopal under the banner of National Educated Youth Union (NEYU) as part of their ongoing agitation that they are calling ‘Bharti (recruitment) Satyagraha’ were insistent on meeting Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to submit a memorandum of demand.
The CM was in Ujjain for the day, reviewing preparations for inauguration of the ‘Mahakal Lok’ – the renovated Mahakal Temple complex in the holy city. However, no government representative met the protesting youth and rather attempts were made throughout the day to disperse them to scuttle the agitation, NEYU representatives said.
The foot march had commenced from Indore on October 2 and a big chunk of the youth reached the outskirts of Bhopal late on Saturday night. However, they were detained on Sehore road early in the morning, along with MP Youth Congress workers led by state president Vikrant Bhuria, and released on different spots further away from the state capital.
The state unit of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) – the students’ unit of Congress, also held demonstrations at Vyapam Square in support of the protesting youth.
Later, different small groups of protesters entered the city from other routes – while some were detained again at Bhadbhada Road, others managed to reach near the Secretariat (Vallabh Bhavan) and tried to march to the CM House, but were stopped and diverted to Chinar Park.
The NEYU representatives said that they had tried to seek permission for the protest, but were not granted even after many attempts and finally on Sunday afternoon they were told that they could gather at Chinar Park in the city. However, by evening, the cops tried to disperse them from this venue, too, and detained several protesters, using mild force in the process.
The NEYU representatives said that their agitation will continue and asked the youth across the state to protest at respective districts and if possible reach Bhopal to strengthen the agitation there. They shared number of videos showing their detention by the police.
The NEYU has a string of demands including reducing retirement age to 58 years, formulation of a law on employment, Rs 5,000 unemployment allowance per month allowance and stopping of recruitment on contract and through outsourcing.
The organization has said no recruitment through the MP Public Service Commission (MPPSC) for the past four years and none through the MP Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) for the past five years. Similarly, though the teachers’ recruitment test was conducted for 62,000 posts in 2017, recruitments were done only for 19,000 posts while the other qualified candidates are still awaiting recruitment. They are demanding completion of this recruitment process and creation of more posts of teachers in grade I, 2 and 3 and early recruitment on them.
They have highlighted that due to the recruitment process hanging fire, several youth were getting overaged for different government posts.
The youth are also demanding that recruitment process to 1 lakh posts of sub-inspectors, patwaris, constables, and posts in agriculture department, to be conducted by MPPEB, should be completed at the earliest.
The opposition Congress has been supporting the agitation of the youth with ex-chief minister Kamal Nath writing to the chief minister on the issue and also releasing an address to the youth assuring them fulfillment of their demands when the Congress forms government in 12 months time. Organisations like Jay Adiwasi Yuva Shakti (JAYS), MP Yuva Shakti, Swaraj India and others have also supported the agitation of the youngsters. These organizations condemned the behavior meted out to the protesting youth and demanded their immediate release.
Additional DCP (zone 2), Bhopal, Rajesh Singh Bhadoriya however said that none of the youth was detained, but was counseled by the police that they should seek prior appointment with the chief minister, if they wanted to meet him. “They went away (from the Chinar park) on their own accord after this,” the officer told THE WEEK.
