Mahto faces angry protestors in village Nemra amidst reform campaign

Residents of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s native village Nemra blocked roads on Monday, August 24, to prevent student leader Devendra Nath Mahto from entering the village, amid fears that his organisation could burn the chief minister’s effigy there.

Carrying traditional weapons and sticks, villagers staged a road blockade on the route leading to Nemra in Ramgarh district. Mahto, who is leading the JPSC-JSSC Abhiyarthi Nyay Manch, was scheduled to begin a statewide campaign demanding reforms in recruitment examinations after paying tribute to JMM founder Shibu Soren at his statue in Lukaiyatand.

“We have staged a road blockade to prevent Mahto from entering Nemra,” villager Birju Soren said, claiming that residents had received information that effigies of Hemant Soren could be burnt in the village.

Mahto’s representatives, however, said the protest would not affect the planned campaign and that they were on their way to the venue.

The campaign, titled ‘JPSC-JSSC Corruption-Free Recruitment’, aims to demand fair, transparent and corruption-free recruitment processes across all 24 districts of Jharkhand. Mahto said students across the state were supporting the campaign in the hope of bringing greater transparency to recruitment examinations.

Mahto was among the prominent faces of a 26-day student protest that began in Ranchi on July 25 over alleged irregularities in recruitment examinations. Following the protests, the JMM-led government cancelled 22 tests and ordered probes into 23 others conducted by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission and an outsourced agency since 2014.

However, the Jharkhand High Court has since intervened in several cases. On August 21, it stayed notifications cancelling the appointments of Child Development Project Officers and candidates recruited through the JSSC-CGL examination.

The court had also stayed, on August 20, notifications cancelling the 11th and 13th JPSC examinations, along with the cancellation of appointments of food safety officers.

with inputs from PTI