Bharat bandh evokes mixed response in Bihar

Patna, March 5 (IANS) The day-long Bharat bandh called by Dalit and Tribal groups on Tuesday demanding forest rights for adivasis and job security for ad hoc teachers, and protesting the anti-reservation policy of the central government, evoked a mixed response in Bihar.

Police said normal life was affected as rail and road services were disrupted in different parts of the state, though senior state officials said "elaborate security arrangements had been made".

Thousands of members of Dalits, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Tribal outfits, including the Bhim Army, descended on streets since early morning blocking road and rail traffic.

Several arterial roads were blocked and over a dozen long-route trains were halted at Ara, Jehanabad, Patna, Darbhanga, Bhagalpur, Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Begusarai railway stations.

Clashes between the protesters and the police were reported from Bhojpur, Madhepura, Jehanabad and Arwal.

In Bhagalpur, the protesters clashed with local shopkeepers trying to forcibly shut markets.

Leaders of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress, the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), the Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Left parties, which are supporting the shutdown, also took to streets to protest the University Grants Commission's new 13-point roster system that will drastically reduce jobs for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the Other Backward Classes.

The new system replaces the 200-point roster system, in which the entire university was taken as a unit for reservation and recruitment. Under the new 13-point roster system, each department is taken as a unit for implementing recruitment and reservation policy for teachers.

They were also demanding an ordinance over the now-stayed Supreme Court order directing eviction of over 10 lakh families of Adivasis and other forest dwellers from forest lands across 16 states.

The apex court had on February 13 ordered eviction of tribals in unauthorised possession of forest land. On February 28, however, it put the order on hold.

In Patna, senior RJD leaders and party workers staged a protest march and dharna.

"The Narendra Modi government's decision to abolish the 13-point roster and approve 10 per cent quota to the EWS in the general category is not in line with the principle of affirmative action prescribed in the Constitution. The RSS is hell bent upon scrapping reservation for SC/ST & OBCs," said RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.