 "Agnipath protests, Bihar")
Protests over the Centre's Agnipath defence recruitment scheme turned violent in Madhya Pradesh's Indore on Friday morning after hundreds of protesters gathered on tracks near a railway station and hurled stones and blocked a road, forcing the authorities to either stop or cancel some trains and prompting the police to lob teargas shells to control the situation, officials said. Two policemen suffered minor injuries in stone pelting, while nearly 15 protesters were arrested, they said. "Nearly 600 youths gathered in different groups on the tracks near Laxmibai Nagar railway station in the city, forcing the railway administration to stop a few trains," Indore police commissioner Harinarayan Chari Mishra told PTI. When the protesters engaged in stone throwing, police fired teargas shells and also resorted to cane-charge to disperse them and bring the situation under control, he said.
"Two policemen sustained minor injuries during the incident but no information of train passengers getting injured in stone pelting has been received so far," the IPS officer said.
Around 15 protesters were arrested and legal action against them was initiated, Mishra said. Meanwhile, public relations officer of the Western Railway, Khemraj Meena, said protesters stopped the Daund-Indore (22943) and Varanasi-Indore Mahakal Express (20413) trains for 45 minutes. The WR cancelled two DEMU (diesel electric multiple unit) trains after getting information about the protests, he said. Meena said police and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel have been deployed at different stations in Indore in view of the demonstrations. Meanwhile, the protesters also disrupted the road traffic in the commercial hub of Madhya Pradesh. Eyewitnesses said youths preparing for recruitment in the armed forces briefly blocked traffic on the busy Agra-Mumbai road. Police cane-charged the protesters to end the road blockade, the witnesses said. In the Mhow cantonment area near Indore, the local administration has imposed section 144 under the CrPC, banning gathering of more than five persons at a spot, to prevent any untoward incident. The cops have barricaded the roads leading to the Army Recruitment Center in Mhow and also other military establishments in the cantonment town. On Thursday, nearly 150 youths had protested against the Agnipath scheme in Indore. Protesters had pelted stones and set shops on fire near a railway station in Gwalior, due to which train operations were briefly affected. Violent protests against the defence recruitment scheme are being witnessed in many states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Unveiling the ambitious scheme on Tuesday, the government said youths between the ages of 17 and-a-half and 21 years (upper age limit increased to 23 years for 2022 recruitment process) would be inducted for a four-year tenure while 25 per cent of the recruits will be retained for regular service. The new scheme for the recruitment of soldiers in the Army, Navy and Air Force was projected by the government as a major overhaul of the decades-old selection process to enhance the youthful profile of the three services. However, the scheme has invited criticism from opposition leaders who have maintained it would adversely impact the functioning of the armed forces. Defence job aspirants are not happy with the short-term recruitment scheme which comes without pension benefits.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
