Lucknow, June 12
Students and government job aspirants staged a protest in Lucknow on Friday against alleged examination irregularities and paper leaks, with demonstrators demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The protest, led by Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, was held at Eco Garden and drew candidates preparing for various government recruitment examinations, including teaching, medical, revenue and administrative services.
Police officials said permission had been granted for the demonstration after an application was submitted late on Thursday evening. Authorities estimated that about 1,000 people would participate in the protest.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Babloo Kumar said the application for permission had been filed by an individual and not by any organisation.
“The application was submitted by a teacher, Vivek Kumar, late Thursday evening. After completing the required procedure, permission was granted,” Kumar said.
Police also clarified that reports claiming permission had been denied were misleading, stating that no formal request regarding the demonstration had been received before Thursday evening.
According to officials, permission for the protest was valid from 10 am to 4 pm.
Dipke said the agitation was part of a nationwide campaign aimed at raising concerns over alleged irregularities in recruitment and examination processes. He said similar protests had already been organised in Delhi and Pune.
“We have held peaceful protests in Delhi and Pune. We are not doing anything wrong. We only want to put forward our views in a democracy,” Dipke said earlier.
The CJP has announced plans to organise further demonstrations in Amritsar and Bengaluru before holding a larger protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on June 20.
