BJP workers clash with police in Patna over teacher recruitment policy

Patna: Police burst tear gas shells and used water canons to disperse thousands of BJP workers, including senior leaders, who tried to march towards the Bihar Vidhan Sabha in protest against the Nitish Kumar government's teacher recruitment policy.

State BJP president Samrat Choudhary told reporters, before the march commenced at the historic Gandhi Maidan, that the opposition party was holding to account the government, especially Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who had promised "10 lakh jobs".

"Everybody knows who made that rhetorical promise. Only one individual had done so. It is, now, the time to deliver," said Choudhary, referring to the 2020 assembly poll campaign of the young RJD leader whose party came to power last year after BJP was stripped of the same with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's exit from the NDA.

BJP workers, many of them wearing saffron kurtas, saris, salwar suits and bandanas, walked waving the party flag while some were perched atop a "prachar rath" (campaign vehicle).

Slogans like "Nitish Tejashwi istifa do" (Nitish Kumar must resign) rent the air as the procession covered a distance of about a kilometre until it encountered barricades put up at the Dak Bungalow crossing.

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Rajiv Mishra said, "We have deployed extra forces at all sensitive points and barricades and where necessary traffic has been diverted to alternative routes." Notably, the Dak Bungalow crossing is situated around two kilometres from the Vidhan Sabha and, normally, processions are not allowed beyond the point.

When some of the agitators tried to cross the barricade, police resorted to the use of force and firing of tear gas shells, besides water canons, sending the BJP workers scampering.

The opposition party has sought to lend its support to teaching job aspirants who are resenting the "no domicile" policy of recruitment, among other things.

The government, however, has made it clear that the policy was there to stay pointing out that no state, which has sought to reserve seats for its own residents, has been able to withstand judicial scrutiny.

The opposition party is also backing the demand of "niyojit" (non-commissioned) teachers that they be recognised and it has alleged that teaching staff's leaves have been cancelled to ensure that they do not join the stir.

The education department, besides cancelling all leaves and ordering "100 per cent attendance" at schools on the day, has asked the district administration in Patna to "identify" those teachers who had of late taken part in street protests.