India police clash with protestors over jobs and exam transparency– www.channelnewsasia.com

PATNA, India: Indian students and unemployed youth clashed with police on Tuesday (Aug 25) as they marched towards the residence of the chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, demanding access jobs and transparency in recruitment exams.

Police in Bihar, home to about 130 million people, used water cannons as a few thousand protestors broke through security barricades in the regional capital Patna, an AFP reporter saw.

The protests came a month after massive youth-led demonstrations in New Delhi forced the ouster of India’s education minister over alleged irregularities in conducting key competitive examinations.

Footage from local media showed demonstrators in Patna demanding access to government jobs, the cancellation of a key recruitment exam and changes to the examination format announcement by the government.

Local police accused some protestors of attacking security personnel.

“Police will identify those involved in stone pelting at police and will take action against them,” Patna police superintendent Kartikeya K Sharma told reporters on Tuesday.

The protests began last week with unemployed youth demanding jobs, but they later expanded to include calls for education reform.