Patna job aspirants march on the chief minister's residence over two recruitment exams

The first is the 70th examination of the Bihar Public Service Commission. The second is the recruitment test for 1,799 sub-inspector posts conducted by the Bihar Police Subordinate Services Commission. Protesters want both cancelled, saying the examinations contained inconsistencies, and want a fair investigation into the irregularities they allege.

Two further demands go to how recruitment works rather than to these two examinations. They want an end to the contract system in BPSC examinations, and specifically to the rule giving 25% weightage. And they want the state to publish a job calendar, and to conduct examinations regularly.

The march

The march began at Gandhi Maidan and set out for the chief minister's residence.

Police stopped it at JP Golambar, the roundabout on the route. Some protesters broke through the barricades there and took alternative routes that were not part of the security arrangements. Others attempted to block railway tracks at Patna Junction.

The disruption reached beyond the protest route. Ambulance movement was affected and schoolchildren were left stranded.

The police account

Patna's senior superintendent of police, Kartikeya K Sharma, set out the basis for the detentions.

"Several protesters were detained from different places after they entered prohibited areas," he said, adding that demonstrators "should protest only at designated sites and present their demands systematically".

What has not happened

Neither examination has been cancelled. No investigation into the alleged irregularities has been announced.

The allegations remain allegations. The protesters say the examinations contained inconsistencies; no finding by any authority has supported or rejected that, and none has been made.

The second march this year

An earlier protest in Patna, on 25 August, took the same route for different reasons.

That one sought a single-stage teachers' recruitment examination in place of a preliminary and main division, the cancellation of an earlier BPSC Combined Competitive Examination over alleged irregularities, and action against the commission's examination controller, Rakesh Kumar Singh, over remarks protesters regarded as disparaging.

Singh addressed those remarks at the time. "I just used a proverb. It was not my intention to offend anybody," he said.

That march also began at Gandhi Maidan and headed for the chief minister's residence, and was met with water cannon at JP Golambar and a lathi charge at the Dak Bungalow crossing.

Tuesday's march took the same route to the same barricade. What differs is the examinations named and the number of posts at issue.