Ranchi: Around a dozen aspirants have died while hundreds of them fainted during the ongoing physical tests for excise department constable recruitment drive in the state of Jharkhand. “The causalities have been registered under the unnatural death category while postmortems of the deceased are being done to ascertain the cause of death,” informed police.
Hundreds of aspirants taking part in the recruitment process being conducted for 583 posts at seven centers in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Sahibganj, Giridih, Palamu, and East Singhbhum districts have reported to suffered suffocation related illness while around a dozen have died due to reasons yet to be ascertained.
Unfortunately, four candidates died in Palamu, two deaths each were reported in Giridih and Hazaribagh while one candidate died at Jharkhand Jaguar, CTC Masubani and Sahibganj centres each. We have registered cases of unnatural death in connection with the incident and are trying to ascertain the causes. Further action will be taken according to laws,” informer IG (Operations) Police, Amol Homkar on Sunday, September 1.
Efforts are being made to complete the tests as early as possible in the morning so that the candidates do not face extreme heat. Moreover, arrangements of medicines and ambulances are made at the centres, Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS) drinks are also made available to the candidates, he added.
It is being speculated that lack of preparation time, humid weather conditions and other factors could be the possible cause of the deaths of the aspirants participating in the tests qualified by over 78k candidates so far.
BJP trained guns at the state government
The number of deaths during the recruitment drive have now stirred a major political row as well, where the opposition leaders have been training guns on the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) led coalition government for short preparation time given to the candidates before organising the physical tests.
Reacting to the deaths of the candidates, Amar Kumar Bauri, Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Jharkhand state assembly said that “Never in the history of India have taken place so many deaths during any recruitment drive. This is due to the arbitrary decree of the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance government”.
भारत के इतिहास में अभी तक किसी भी बहाली में इतनी मृत्यु नहीं हुई, झामुमो-कांग्रेस-राजद ठगबंधन सरकार की तुगलकी फरमान के कारण उत्पन्न हुई ये स्थिति झारखंडी बेरोजगार युवाओं का एक 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐃𝐄 है। झामुमो-कांग्रेस-राजद सरकार ने पिछले 5 वर्षों में पहले मानसिक रूप से युवाओं को मारा… pic.twitter.com/BQYWtr7xlU
— Amar Kumar Bauri (@amarbauri) September 1, 2024
In the last five years the government has killed the youths mentally and now it is causing harm to them physically as well. How many more youths will this anti-youth government cause to die? Added Bauri in a long post on social media platform X featuring details of a few aspirants who have died while taking part in the recruitment process.
Lambasting at the government over rushing the recruitment drive, another senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Babu Lal Marandi too come down heavily on the government. Generally, in the recruitment process, first there is a written examination, after which a race is organised to test the physical efficiency of the successful candidates but the Chief Minister hurried the process.
In a hurry to create an atmosphere without any preparation, lives of 11 promising youths have been sacrificed by asking the unemployed to participate in the race by providing only fifteen days of preparation time. Hemant Soren has done an extrajudicial inhuman act. A judicial commission should be formed to investigate and identify those responsible for the death of 11 youth said Marandi while demanding a compensation for Rs 50 lakh along with a government job for the deceased.
उत्पाद सिपाही भर्ती परीक्षा के 500 सीटों की बहाली में 11 होनहार युवा अब तक अपनी जान गंवा चुके हैं, यानी 2% से भी ज्यादा…
ये मरने वाले सभी युवा अपने गरीब परिवार का सहारा थे, अपने मां-बाप की आंखों का तारा थे।
सामान्यतः भर्ती प्रक्रिया में पहले लिखित परीक्षा होती है, उसके पश्चात… pic.twitter.com/Iswmz19r17
— Babulal Marandi (@yourBabulal) September 2, 2024
JMM says rules changed by BJP government
Meanwhile refuting the allegations made by the opposition leaders, General Secretary of JMM, Supriyo Bhattacharya said this shows their petty mindset, no government distributes deaths. It’s a grave issue and only the medical experts are the one qualified to answer about the cause of these deaths. Moreover, the rules related to run a stretch of 10 kilometers in an hours’ time are not framed by us either, that were framed during the BJP government led by Raghubar Das.
क्योंकि भाजपा के दल बदलू इस गंभीर मुद्दे पर राजनीति से बाज नहीं आ रहे हैं तो मजबूरी में यह रेखांकित करना पड़ रहा है उनके हवा हवाई हाथी उड़ाओ सरकार में ही नियम बदल 1.6 km के दौड़ को 10 km किया गया था। https://t.co/XfGqfXr45p pic.twitter.com/HPO9ZpSMxo
— Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (@JmmJharkhand) September 2, 2024
There is no issue in the recruitment drives of women, this has been limited to the men category only, a few people are speculating that the candidates could have taken steroids, while a few are claiming that it could be the after effects of covid-19, so let the expert’s report arrive into the matter only after that it can be discussed thoroughly, added Bhattacharya.
Notably, around 1.2 lakhs candidates have already underwent the strenuous physical tests for the post of 583 constables of the excise department under the ongoing drive commenced from August 22. The physical tests of the candidates are expected to be complete by September 4.
