Bihar: Protesting Home Guards halt trains, block roads

Thousands of protesting Home Guards in Bihar forcibly halted dozens of trains and blocked major roads on Wednesday to protest the state government's failure to fulfil their demands.

A patient died in Hajipur, district headquarters of Vaishali, when his ambulance was stuck for hours on road blocked by protestors.

The patient was being taken to a hospital in Patna from Siwan district, police said.

Meanwhile, Lalu Prasad, chief of the RJD which is an ally of the ruling JD-U, sought intervention of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to provide facilities to home guards as per direction of the Supreme Court.

"The chief minister should immediately talk to home guard personnel for an immediate end to their strike," he said.

Lalu said that mostly people from weaker and marginalised sections join home guard. The state government should take care of them.

The home guards are demanding increase in pay, accidental coverage during duty and post-retirement benefits from the Bihar government.

"Trains were halted at Patna, Darbhanga, Buxar, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Madhubani, Jehanabad, Munger, Jamui, Ara, Gaya, Supaul, Samastipur and other railway stations by the protestors to enforce their 'chakka jam' today (May 20)," a police official said.

In Patna, hundreds of home guard personnel blocked busy R-block crossing causing massive traffic jam. National Highways 83, 110 and 98, were also blocked.

Bihar Homeguards Volunteers Association leader Sidheshwar Prasad told media here that they would intensify their protest from Thursday and launch "jail bharo andolan".

Over 70,000 home guards in Bihar began an indefinite strike last week.

Association president Arun Kumar Thakur said they will not end their stir until the government fulfils their demands.

The home guard personnel have been petitioning the state government for the past few years to fulfil their demands.

According to state home department officials, the home guard personnel are deployed for traffic regulation, in banks, jail and police stations.