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Railway Board Exam Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, October 19 In at least one centre, the examination was cancelled after the MNS men chased away examiners and forced the candidates to flee. According to MNS leader Shishir Shinde, the party has decided to disrupt the examinations because not enough local candidates were selected to appear. “A large number of candidates were coming from Bihar to appear for the examinations while there was no publicity for the tests in local newspapers,” Shinde said. In all, the exams were to be conducted at more than 80 centres across Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan surrounding areas. According to the police, the exams were generally peaceful except for areas dominated by the MNS. At the Kasturba Nagar municipal school at Borivli in north Mumbai, the examinations were called off after MNS men damaged furniture and chased away examiners and students, the police said. Trouble has been brewing from late Saturday night when MNS activists were tipped off about a large number of outstation people coming to the city for the examinations. Candidates who were taking the exams for the Classes III and IV categories of jobs were staying put at the railway station before leaving for the examination centres in the morning. MNS activists caught several candidates camping at the Thane railway station and beat them up on Saturday night, the police said. Though security was beefed up in many places, the MNS men prevailed over the authorities. At Vidya Bhavan High School in Dombivali, the MNS men descended on the candidates who were more than half way through the examinations and tore up their answer sheets. Some students, who refused to leave the examination centre, were badly beaten up and some of them suffered injuries requiring hospitalisation, sources said. At ICL School at Vashi in Navi Mumbai, MNS activists checked the hall tickets of candidates to determine who were from northern India before beating them up. Similar attacks were reported from some other schools as well. Meanwhile, the police has arrested several MNS activists across Mumbai, Thane and other places. Railway officials say they may conduct a fresh examination at centres where answer sheets were torn. According to a Central Railway spokesperson, at least 13 centres in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Dombivli had been attacked. More centres have been attacked under the jurisdiction of the Western Railway as well. Meanwhile, the Janata Dal (United) today demanded immediate arrest of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and his nephew Raj Thackeray, president of the MNS, for their alleged instigation of their activists to manhandle students from Bihar.
Assault on Candidates Patna, October 19 Soon after getting the news of the
assault on candidates, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar spoke to his counterpart in Maharshtra. Bihar’s principal secretary (Home) Afzal Amanullah also spoke to the chief secretary and home commissioner of Maharshtra over this episode. Amanullah also sent a fax message to the Government of Maharashtra saying that “the Government of Bihar is extremely worried about the safety and security of Hindi speaking people from North India who were being targetted by some outfits in parts of Mumbai and Sholapur.” Through its fax message, the state government sought proper security to the life and property of people from North India who had gone to appear in examination being conducted by the Central railway and Western railway having its headquarters in Mumbai as well as those already residing in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra. The message further says that drastic action be ensured against the culprits “who were out to create barriers within the country and cause disaffection among different sections of people”. On being contacted by The Tribune, Amanullah said he had been informed by his counter part in Maharashtra about the arrest of some MNS activists in connection with the incident today. However, the Bihar government wanted that drastic action be taken against all concerned so that no one dared to resort to such incidents in future. “We are constantly monitoring the
situation there,” he added. While students owing allegiance to different political outfits organised demonstrations and burnt effigy of MNS chief Raj Thackray at different places in the state capital, politicians cutting across party lines condemned the incident in very strong terms. The student wing of the ruling Janata Dal (U) burnt the effigy of Raj Thackray in front of Patna University, that of the RJD did the same at Kargil Chowk near Gandhi Maidan. They were all shouting slogans against the MNS and Shiv Sena, demanding immediate cancellation of the examination conducted by the RRB in Maharashtra. Senior RJD leader and Member of the Lok Sabha from Patna, Ramkripal Yadav, severely criticised Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vilasrao Desmukh for being soft towards the MNS and Shiv Sena and demanded imposition of the President’s Rule there. National spokesman of JD (U) and Rajya Sabha member Shivanand Tiwary said Mumbai seemed to be ruled by some extra-constitutional authorities in the garb of MNS and Shiv Sena. ‘Gundagiri’ won’t be tolerated, says Maharashtra CM Mumbai:
Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today said had the Railway Board given prior intimation about the exam, the government would have provided ‘full security’ at the examination centres. “We would have provided full security if the board had told us earlier about the exams,” Deshmukh said after a flag-off function of direct train service between his home town Latur and Mumbai. The government will not tolerate ‘gundagiri’ of the MNS, he added.
— PTI Lalu demands ban on MNS New Delhi: Railway minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad today vehemently protested against repeated attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra and described MNS leader Raj Thackeray as a ‘mental’ case who should be arrested for fomenting violence amongst Maharashtrians. The RJD leader also demanded an immediate ban on the MNS. Lalu added that the exam held by the Railways in Mumbai would not be cancelled. He said his party would raise this issue in Parliament tomorrow.
— UNI
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