Activists of Raj Thackeray's party stormed into an examination centre and beat up the candidates from north Indian states and tore their answer sheets.
PUNE: Seeking prominence for the 'son of the soils' in recruitments in Maharashtra, activists of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Sunday stormed into an examination centre of Railway Recruitment Board, Western Railway here and beat up the candidates from north Indian states and tore their answer sheets, disrupting the ongoing test.
The MNS activists barged into Abasaheb Atre Prashala at Rasta Peth at about 11.30 am and forcibly tried to snatch the answer sheets of the candidates. Those who tried to argue or were hesitant to hand over the answer sheets were beaten up, police sources said.
The centre in-charge later registered a case against the MNS activists following which eight of those who were allegedly involved in the vandalism were arrested.
Prakash Dhamdere, city publicity chief of MNS, who was among the arrested, said that the protest was not pre-planned.
He said that the MNS activists simply wanted to voice their grievance over the neglect of Maharashtrians in getting their share of jobs in Central Government institutions in the state.
While denying that the MNS had indulged in uncontrolled violence, Dhamdere said that the activists of his party only were rough with those candidates who had refused to hand over their answer sheets.
Senior MNS leader Vikram Boke alleged that majority of the candidates for the tests conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board for various Class III posts were from either Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. "There were not many Marathis and a clear plan to favour non-Marathis in the recruitment was very much evident," he alleged.
Meanwhile, the examination conducted by the Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai at 27 other centres in Pune went off smoothly. "Barring the protest by the MNS activists at Abasahe Atre Prashala, the examination in other centres in the city was completed without any trouble," Central Railway Public Relation Officer Y V Singh said.
Questioned whether the examination at the Abasaheb Atre Prashala has been cancelled in view of the disruption and tearing off answer sheets by the protestors, he said so far no decision in this regard has been taken by the railway authorities.
He also denied the charge of favouritism towards candidates from north Indian states in the recruitment to junior posts in the railways in Maharashtra. Singh said that in normal course advertisements are placed in local newspapers and also in the Employment News, which is available throughout the country.
Singh said that the examination was being held to fill up vacancies in the categories of motor-man, loco-pilots, signal and telecommunication engineers etc.
While saying that he was not aware of the number of vacancies for which the examination was being held, the railway official stated that some 14,000 candidates, about 50 per cent of those who had applied, had come for the tests in Pune.
At the Abasaheb Atre Prashala, there were around 300 candidates, he informed.
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