- Saturday, May 18, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THOUSANDS of youth in India have vented anger on empty train compartments this week by burning them down besides disrupting railway traffic to protest what they alleged irregularities in recruitment by the country’s huge railway ministry which is among one of the world’s biggest employers.
Student bodies have called for more protests in the eastern state of Bihar, which has reported one of the highest jobless rates in the nation. India’s overall employment picture is grim in times of the coronavirus pandemic and the unemployment rate is estimated to have exceeded the global rate in five of the past six years.
The violence started on Monday (24) after the results of examinations for various job categories showed that the names of some people appeared several times and it left the unsuccessful candidates fuming as they felt they were being made victims.
It was learnt that millions had applied for some 150,000 jobs in Bihar and its neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh.
“The recruitment process has not been transparent,” Ashutosh Singh, one of the protesters in Bihar, where coaches of a stationary train were set on fire on Wednesday, told Reuters.
“A number of the selected candidates had their names in various categories, which is very unfair,” he added.
The same day, the railways ministry said a committee had been set up to look into the concerns of the complaining candidates. Earlier, it said those found involved in the vandalism and destruction of public property would not be allowed to appear for railways jobs in the future apart from initiating legal action against them.
Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw requested the angry job aspirants not refrain from destroying public property and assured that their grievances would be addressed.
The ministry suspended the Non-Technical Popular Categories and the Level 2 exams after reports of vandalism by the job aspirants from various parts of the nation came to light, the Press Trust of India reported.
“I am telling the aspirants that this is their own property. Why are they destroying something that is their own? However, authorities will follow due process if public property is damaged,” the minister said at a press conference.
Vaishnaw also said that the ministry was in touch with the chief ministers of the states where the vandalism took place and the issue was being handled “sensitively”.
“I urge the candidates to put forth their grievances formally. Our intention is to resolve this issue quickly. A committee has been formed and it will examine representations by the candidates,” he said.
In Bihar’s capital Patna, authorities have made police complaints against some 400 unnamed people and six institutes involved in coaching students for railways and other jobs, Chandrashekhar Singh, a senior official, told Reuters by phone.
The India’s Railways employs more than 1.2 million people.
