Demonstration in Karimganj demanding centre for recruitment examination

After 5,542 candidates were absent on the first day of the grade IV Direct Recruitment Examination, many reported their absence due to the traffic jam on the Silchar-Karimganj Road. While a rough estimate says, over two thousand applicants from Karimganj and Hailakandi missed their examination, the Cachar DC however has a different opinion on this. Since Karimganj and Hailakandi didn’t have any examination centres, all the applicants had to travel to Cachar to sit for their papers. Along with Karimganj North MLA, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, many students have raised their voices against this gross inconvenience. Visuals of long queues of vehicles stuck on National Highway 6, went viral on social media. Today morning, Sujan Deb Roy and Biswadeep Das, started an indefinite sit-in protest in front of the Karimganj Deputy Commissioner’s Office to raise their voice against this.

They demand allotment of centres both in Karimganj and Hailakandi for the upcoming examination on August 28. Sujan Deb Roy, speaking to Barak Bulletin said, “We have sat on this protest not just for the upcoming examination on August 28, but for all the upcoming recruitment examinations of the state government. Our demand is simple until the examination centres are not allocated in the two districts, we won’t end this protest. Now, it is just a protest, but if we don’t get any response from the administration and government, this will become a hunger strike”. Further he has urged the candidates to support the protest on social media and said, “We are just two people here, we don’t want the applicants to come as they have to prepare for the exam. But we want their moral support, we are here on their behalf.”

Sujan Deb Roy has also said, “We have lost faith in just a piece of paper and hence we have not submitted any memorandum. This is a sit-in protest and will continue through Twitter and social media”. Biswadeep Das has said, “All the formalities, checking and security lies in the examination centre, but what about the road the applicants took to reach the exam centre? This was the last hope for the educated unemployed, after this recruitment for 26000 posts, there are no hopes for any other recruitment in the future. Just imagine the mental condition of an applicant who went with full preparation but could not sit for the exam. We demand that what happened last Sunday have happened, but this should not repeat on August 28. Even after all these, the MLAs of Barak Valley are mum and have nothing to say about this. Barak has always been deprived by all the existing governments and this alike. Now the deprivation is with the unemployed youths”.

Das further questioned the administration and said, “Don’t we have centres in Karimganj? Even after having Karimganj College, B. Ed. College and others, why are the applicants forced to appear for their exams in some remote part of Cachar? Until and unless we get any assurance from the administration about centres in Karimganj and Hailakandi, we won’t end this protest, it doesn’t matter day or night”. On August 21, Cachar DC Rohan Kumar Jha said, “There was no traffic jam and we have not received any such report of applicants missing their exams due to traffic jam”.