Agnipath protest: A group of agitators blocked trains by doing push-ups in Bengal's Barrackpore railway station in North 24 Parganas on Saturday. Several trains were hold up outside the station owing to this protest. The group was protesting against the short-term service scheme for recruitment in the Army.
There was an altercation between the daily railway commuters and the agitators. Some of the commuters also blamed a section of the media for unnecessarily highlighting the protests, which encourage the agitators.
Later, a huge police contingent reached the spot. First, the police personnel tried to verbally pursue the agitators to stay away from the railway tracks. However, that did not work and the police had to resort to use of force and mild lathi-charge to disperse the crowd. After almost two hours, the blockade was removed and train services resumed.
At the industrial township of Durgapur in West Bardhaman district of West Bengal, the supporters of youth and student wings of the CPI-M organised a protest rally demanding immediate cancellation of Agnipath. However, the event was peaceful.
The local MP from Barrackpore, Arjun Singh, who has recently joined Trinamool Congress from BJP, said that the Union government has always come out with such anti-people schemes which provoke agitations and common people suffer. "The Union government's aim is to destabilise peace," he added.
BJP's state president in West Bengal and party MP, Sukanta Majumdar said that the non-BJP parties are actually misleading the youths and instigating them to resort to such disruptive activities. "I request the agitators to go through the Agnipath scheme and read its plus points," he said.
(with inputs from agencies)
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