Hundreds of students staged a protest at Gandhi Maidan in Ranchi on Friday against the Jharkhand High Court’s stay on the state government’s decision to cancel several JPSC and JSSC examinations and appointments.
The protest was organised following a call by the JPSC-JSSC Reform Forum, which had urged students across all 24 districts of Jharkhand to burn effigies of Chief Minister Hemant Soren in protest against the court’s decision. Tensions were reported at several district headquarters after police seized effigies of the chief minister.
In Ranchi, the protesters marched towards the JPSC office, disrupting traffic and accusing the state government of “betrayal” for allegedly failing to strongly defend the cases before the High Court.
Ranchi City Deputy Superintendent of Police K.V. Raman said police used mild force after protesters allegedly violated the route prescribed by the administration.
“A route was given to them by the police administration, according to which they had to go from Morabadi via Karam Toli, via Jail Chowk and then to Firayalal. They disregarded the route given by the police administration,” Raman said, according to ANI.
The protesting students, however, alleged that police and ruling JMM workers attempted to prevent their peaceful demonstration and claimed that female protesters were also assaulted.
Police reportedly faced difficulties in controlling the crowd because of the size of the protest venue, with students repeatedly regrouping at different locations and continuing their agitation.
Clashes were also reported in Hazaribag and Giridih, where JMM workers allegedly confronted students who were attempting to burn effigies of Soren and Mahatma Gandhi.
On August 18, the state government cancelled 22 recruitment examinations conducted since 2014 by the JPSC, JSSC and outsourced agency TDPL, and ordered probes into 23 other examinations. The decision followed a 25-day agitation by various student organisations over alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.
However, a group of candidates who qualified the JSSC-CGL examination challenged the government’s decision in court, arguing that candidates selected on merit should not lose their jobs because of alleged irregularities in the examinations.
On Thursday, the high court stayed notifications cancelling appointments made through the 11th and 13th JPSC examinations and those of Food Safety Officers. On Friday, it also stayed the cancellation of JSSC-CGL appointments and CDPO recruitments.
