RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, April 19: Daylong Jharkhand bandh called by various student organisations in the state to protest against ‘the 60:40’ recruitment policy evoked mixed responses in the state.
School buses were not noticed on the road as the school management had planned closure or online classes in the wake of the bandh. As school buses remained off the road, the traffic load on the city road drastically reduced.
Apart from the school buses, limited movement of buses from one district to other districts was observed. Supply of vegetables from remote villages remained affected though the vegetable market was noticed open in the morning.
At the Morabadi ground in the Jharkhand capital students were noticed forcing the vendors not to carry out their business in the weekly market. As the information reached the police control room dy SP (city) Deepak Kumar chased them away.
Long queues of vehicles were noticed on NH-33 as students disrupted vehicular movement by burning tyres near Kothar over-bridge and Tire Mod over bridge at Ramgarh. People preferred avoiding their journey.
In the Jharkhand capital, SSP Kishore Kaushal himself was noticed monitoring the situation. As many as 5000 security personnel were deputed at strategic locations. Till 1 pm as many as 30 bandh supporters trying to enforce bandh forcibility were detained.
The bandh was pre-planned. Before observing the bandh students had attempted to lay siege to the CM’s official residence on Kanke Road on Monday and then took out a torchlight procession on Tuesday.
The recruitment policy has always remained a matter of concern for the state government since the Jharkhand High Court rejected the BJP government’s first attempt to implement the 1932 Khatiyan based local policy and then another attempt to recruit locals by giving 100 per cent reservation for locals in 13 scheduled and 11 non-scheduled districts.
Present chief minister Hemant Soren’s attempt to appoint locals by giving more value to local regional languages and giving opportunities for jobs to only those who have completed their secondary and intermediate level education from Jharkhand based education institutions also failed.
