A Madhya Pradesh bandh called by the principal Opposition Congress to press for a CBI enquiry into the Professional Examination Board scam elicited partial response on Saturday.
Shops and other commercial establishments were closed here and in other places but began opening by afternoon. Traffic was unhindered. “The agitation was peaceful. Twenty-two youth Congress workers protesting at Roshanpura were detained and incarcerated,” Deputy Inspector General of Police (Bhopal Urban) D Srinivas Varma said.
Congress State spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi claimed that the bandh received total public support across the State barring Ujjain and Sidhi that were kept out of its purview. Essential services such as health and education were excluded from the agitation.
All shops, business establishments, schools, colleges and Government offices remained shut, and public transport also remained off the roads. The Congress Party alleged wide-scale manipulation in the results of examinations conducted by Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (PEB).
“We had called for shutdown in entire Bhopal. We requested few petrol associations to co-operate with us. This is the biggest corruption scandal in the country. We demand a CBI investigation. We are going to request high court to order CBI to take over the case. There is a good response not just in Bhopal but all over the state,” said Congress leader PC Sharma.
He demanded a probe by the State police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged scam. The written examination was conducted in September last year. Around 55,000 candidates had appeared for around 4,025 seats in the State.