Students protesting over JPSC-JSSC exam reforms began marching towards the Jharkhand Assembly after talks with the government failed to meet their demands. Demonstrators breached police barricades and continued to move forward.
Meanwhile, police detained BJP leaders including Aditya Sahu and former CM Babulal Marandi outside the CM's residence.
JPSC protest leader Devendra Nath Mahto, who has been on hunger strike for nine days, has joined the Assembly march in an ambulance.
Devendra Nath Mahato urged students to stay disciplined. "It is Hemant Soren's birthday today. I don't want students to do anything on this day which would cause some mishap here like that during Jantar Mantar protest in Delhi. No blood should spill here, it should stay peaceful," he said.
"This is a failure of the government. They should have accepted the demand (of cancellation of exams)...The government indeed accepted several demands; I thank them for this. But the important demand is about the JSSC-CGL exam (cancellation). Maximum irregularities happened here," said Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) MLA Jairam Kumar Mahato.
Student leader Ravindra Paswan said earlier that "our march will be completely peaceful and conducted constitutionally."
Key demands by the student outfits
The ruling JMM's students' wing Jharkhand Chhatra Morcha (JCM) placed five demands before the government panel, including the cancellation of the 14th Jharkhand PSC Civil Services Examination.
The NSUI placed six demands before the government, including a CID probe into all JPSC and JSSC examinations under doubt within 90 days and the setting up of Jharkhand Testing Agency (JTA) on the lines of the National Testing Agency, its spokesperson Sanjiv Shah said.
