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Protests continue in Bihar over Agnipath scheme

Violent protest over the Central government’s Agnipath scheme for recruitment in armed forces continued across Bihar on Thursday with hundreds of aspirants disrupting rail and road traffic while police fired tear gas shells to disperse them.

On Wednesday also, aspirants staged protests at Muzaffarpur, Begusarai and Buxar district over the scheme, disrupting road and rail traffic movement.

On Thursday, protesters set afire train bogeys in Kaimur and Chhapra districts, blocked train movements in Siwan, Ara (Bhojpur), Jehanabad, Nawada, Saharsha, Chhapra and other places while road traffic was disrupted at some places. As many as 22 trains were cancelled and five were stopped midway, said East Central Railway officials.
Smoke billows from a train coach after it was set on fire at Chapra railway station in Bihar’s Saran district on June 16, 2022 during a protest against the Agnipath scheme.

BJP MLA Aruna Devi’s vehicle was attacked by protesters in Nawada, leaving her and some people accompanying her injured. The party office in Nawada too was vandalised by the protesters who were demanding that the old system of recruitment in defence services be restored.

At Ara (Bhojpur) railway station, the protesters pelted stones at police, and railway staff were seen using fire extinguishers to put out a fire after protesters burnt station furniture on the tracks. Later, police had to open tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.

In Jehanabad, the aspirants gathered at the railway track and disrupted movement of trains and hurled stones at police and public. The policemen too were seen pelting stones at protesters at the Jehanabad railway station. In Nawada, Saharsha and Chhapra railway stations and highways too, the aspirants burnt tyres and blocked movement of trains and damaged railway properties. The police at Nawada railway station were seen appealing to protesters to maintain peace.

On Wednesday too, hundreds of protesters had blocked national highways and rail tracks in different parts of the State.

The protesters had blocked national highway-28 in Muzaffarpur and disrupted movement of trains in Buxar district while burning tyres and shouting slogans like “Bharti do ya arthi do (recruit us or get us killed)”. They said that under the scheme, which was announced on June 14, only up to 25 % of the recruits or ‘Agniveers’ could get regular commission in the services and the rest would be jobless thereafter.

“The government is playing a game like PUBG with us. We’ll continue to protest until the government takes some meaningful decision on this to help us”, said the protesters in Muzaffarpur while asking, “why had no BJP leader said anything even when their government was holding back recruitment in defence services for so long?”

The recruitment, they said, in defence services was held up due to COVID-19 for the last two years. The age for recruitment under the Agnipath scheme for aspirants is 17.5 to 21 years.

“Even MPs and MLAs get five years term. What will we do with just four years of job,” they asked in Buxar where the railway tracks were later cleared after police pacified the protesters.

The Central government, though, has called the scheme “historic” while announcing that about 45,000 soldiers would be recruited into the defence services on short-term contract which would eventually enable a youthful profile of the armed forces and reduce the salary and pension bill burden on the government.

The recruitment of Agniveers would begin in next 90 days and the first batch will be ready by July 2023. “The government should give Agniveers 20-30% reservation in other jobs once they are out of service after four years under Agnipath scheme,” said a protester at Buxar.