Forest Guard protest intensifies: SRPF deployed, agitators triple
Updated: Aug 6th, 2024
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| Forest dept candidates protests |
Following the detention of 200 agitators, more candidates took up their mantle in the ongoing protest over the results of the competitive exam held to recruit 823 Forest Beat Guards.
Several applicants who took the CBRT (Computer-Based Recruitment Testing) exam held in February have been protesting the results at the Ram Katha Maidan in Gandhinagar’s Sector 11 since Aug 1.
The protest, which picked up pace after the detentions early on Aug 6, moved to Swarnim Park opposite the state Assembly in Gandhinagar.
With the government refusing to open a dialog with the protesters, police officials — including Gandhinagar’s Superintendent of Police — attempted to bring the agitation under control. However, the protest escalated after the agitators were taken to the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) Ground in Magodi. The SRPF was deployed in Swarnim Park later in the day. However, subsequently, the protesters received word from the Gandhinagar Range IG that their demands had reached the government and the situation would be resolved.
By evening, the police had herded the agitators to the Satyagraha camp, and more protesters joined the agitation. By the end of the day, there were thrice as many protesters as there had been the previous day.
At the crux of the agitation is dissatisfaction with the Mean Standard Deviation Method of Normalisation used to process the scores. Other issues cited by protesters, who have been calling for the exam to be scrapped, include language errors, technical glitches and variations in difficulty levels. They have also demanded an increase in the number of seats, and that individual marks be reported.
Those familiar with the development told Gujarat Samachar Digital that government representatives “instructed” the protesting candidates to keep away from leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party.
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