Even as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tweeted, asking agitating students not to get carried away by the opposition, youths staged demonstrations, shouted slogans and blocked traffic in over a dozen districts.
The movement of trains was also disrupted at many places. In Balia, the protestors stopped Delhi-Jainagar Swatantra Sangram Senani Express and a few other trains. Buses were damaged in Agra and Aligarh, and youths blocked traffic for a few hours in Khurja, Firozabad and Bulandshahr, where the police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse the mob. In Bareilly, hundreds of them gathered at Chowki crossing and shouted slogans.
Angry protestors in Deoria demonstrated at Subhash Chowk, while a foot march was taken out in Gorakhpur. The traffic was also blocked for about an hour at Deoria-Kasyan Road. As the Lichchavi Express could not reach Varanasi due to protests in Bihar, the Railway Protection Force and the Government Railway Police were put on high alert.
CM Adityanath posted on twitter that the Agnipath scheme would give a new dimension to the career of youths and the UP government would give preference to them in various jobs, including the police force, after their four-year tenure.
