PATNA: Indian students and unemployed youth clashed with police on Tuesday as they marched towards the residence of the chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, demanding access jobs and transparency in recruitment exams.
Police in Bihar, home to about 130 million people, used water cannons as a few thousand protestors broke through security barricades in the regional capital Patna.
The protests came a month after massive youth-led demonstrations in New Delhi forced the ouster of India's education minister over alleged irregularities in conducting key competitive examinations.
Footage from local media showed demonstrators in Patna demanding access to government jobs, the cancellation of a key recruitment exam, and changes to the examination format announcement by the government.
The protests began last week with unemployed youth demanding jobs, but they later expanded to include calls for education reform.
The government "is launching the 'Student Support Camp' starting today for the prompt and timely resolution of students' problems, complaints, and suggestions", Choudhary said in a X post on Tuesday.
The "students will be able to register their complaints online and track their status", he added.
The tight employment market in India makes government jobs, which offer long-term stability, a major draw for millions.
Since the massive youth-led protests organized by the online Cockroach Janta Party in New Delhi, there have been similar demonstrations in other states challenging both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition parties.
In southern Karnataka, members of a BJP-linked student body staged a protest near the state chief minister's residence on Tuesday over alleged irregularities in recruitment for government jobs.
Visuals from the Press Trust of India showed police personnel forcefully removing demonstrators.