By IANS,
Bangalore : Activists of the Kannada Protection Force (KPF) in Karnataka Sunday stormed into exam centres and disrupted railway recruitment examinations in protest against the appearance of north Indian candidates, especially from Bihar, in large numbers.
Police arrested 65 KPF activists who were part of the groups that disrupted the exams being conducted in the Karnataka capital, Mysore and Hubli.
The activists barged into the exam centres in Mysore and Bangalore, seized the question and answer papers from the candidates and tore them, shouting slogans against the railway recruitment board for denying job opportunity to locals and encouraging north Indians, particularly from Bihar, at the expense of candidates from the southern state.
“The activists, including 50 in Mysore, have been sent to judicial custody after they were arrested under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for disturbing law and order, resorting to violence and disrupting exam conducted by the railway recruitment board for the post of train ticket examiners,” a police official told IANS here.
“The activists held here have been sent to central jail on city outskirts, while those in Mysore are lodged in the district jail. They will remain behind bars till they seek and are granted bail,” High Grounds police station circle inspector Virupakshappa said.
Threatening the board of intensifying the agitation and preventing it from holding exams again, KPF (Rakshana Vedike) president Shivarame Gowda told IANS that about 1,500 north Indians – a majority of them from Bihar – were appearing for the exam in gross disproportion to the number of candidates from Karnataka.
“This is the second time the board has been trying to recruit more north Indians for C and D group jobs in the railways, denying the legitimate right of the local candidates. This is happening even without Lalu Prasad Yadav as the railway minister but right under the minister of state for railways K.H. Muniyappa, who hails from Karnataka,” Gowda asserted.
Admitting that the exam was disrupted in Bangalore and Mysore but not at Hubli, a railway official said a fresh exam would be conducted July 17 in the two centres where it was disrupted.
Incidentally, Muniyappa assured the people Saturday that local candidates would not be denied opportunity to compete for railway jobs in the South Western Railway (SWR) zone or any other zone in the country on merit.
“We will not allow discrimination against locals. Everyone should have equal right to a railway job irrespective of his home state, language, caste and creed,” Muniyappa pointed out.