RJD workers enforce bandh call in Bihar

Patna: Demanding the release of caste census data, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders and party workers on Monday came out on roads and enforced a bandh across the state. Reports from different districts said the RJD workers indulged in vandalism and used force to make the bandh call successful.

Ruling party Janata Dal (United) has extended support to the bandh call given by the alliance partner RJD.

In Bhagalpur districts, the lathi wielding RJD workers vandalised a sweets shop, food-carts and broke windscreens of auto-rickshaws and other vehicles to enforce the bandh.

Similar reports of forceful bandh came in from Nalanda, Saharsha, Jehanabad, Ara, Begusarai and other places where RJD supporters blocked road and rail traffic since morning.

Schools and shops are closed in Patna and presence in offices too is very thin due to bandh call. Very few vehicles are plying on the road, causing much inconvenience to the commuters.

“The bandh call given



by our party chief Lalu Prasad is getting tremendous response from people across the state and we’ll keep mounting pressure on the central government to make the caste census report public,” declared state RJD president Ram Chandra Purvey while enforcing bandh at Patna’s Dak Bungalow thoroughfare.

Mr Purvey however, denied that the bandh was causing inconvenience to the common people or his party workers were involved in incidents of vandalism and arson at some places. “Those indulged in arson, loot and vandalism are from Opposition parties to defame our party,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, the RJD chief Lalu Prasad had observed a day-long protest fast in Patna demanding the release of caste census data. He also appealed to the people to make the party’s bandh call on Monday successful. He had reached the protest fast venue riding on a horse-cart.

The party chief Lalu Prasad is expected to reach city’s main thoroughfare Dak Bunglow chauraha by afternoon.