Bareilly-wise,ITBP calls off recruitment drive

ITBP Director General RK Bhatia said: “We have cancelled this recruitment till a new system is devised. This is the first time the traditional open recruitment drive is deferred. An incident like the one in Bareilly never occurred before.”

After the violence,ITBP officials had told over one lakh job aspirants that they could send their applications by mail and they would be sent call letters for recruitment.

Bhatia said an ADG of ITBP who had gone to Bareilly for a preliminary inquiry had come back and will submit his report in a day or two. The findings will tell of the lapses on part of the ITBP officials,district administration and the police.

Refuting the statement of Bareilly DM that the ITBP had set up only nine counters to accept applications,he said: “There were 24 counters set up by the ITBP and only 4,000 candidates were inside the campus. They had to add 13 more counters by afternoon.”

The DG said the ITBP letter to the DM had clearly stated that they expected lakhs of aspirants to turn up for the recruitment,and asked for adequate police force,including the traffic police and medical facilities at the ITBP building,the railway and bus stations. “The Bareilly administration and the police were informed well in advance,” he added.

The Special DG (Law and Order) Brij Lal,however,still maintained that the mismanagement on part of the ITBP led to the violence and deaths. He said three separate cases — relating to the death of an ITBP aspirant and violence by the mob of youths — were registered at the Cantonment police station of Bareilly on Wednesday night.

Vehicles,shops and government buildings were set on fire by the mobs of ITBP job-seekers and in the clash with ITBP jawans,one of the aspirants,Devendra Singh,a resident of Etah district,had died.

A complaint by his brother,Keshav Singh,said Devendra,who had come for the physical test at ITBP,sustained serious injuries on the head after ITBP jawans assaulted him with sticks. He was admitted to the district hospital where he succumbed to injuries on Tuesday night,the DIG said.

An FIR was lodged against 100 unidentified ITBP officials and jawans for allegedly beating Devendra to death. Other cases were registered on complaints of the SHO of Cantonment police station and Bareilly Roadways manager against job aspirants for indulging in riots and damaging UPSRTC buses.

The DIG,Bareilly,Prakash D,said Assistant Regional Manager of Bareilly UPSRTC,RBL Sharma stated in his complaint that mismanagement by the ITBP had led to the arson by aspirants who torched seven buses and damaged 22 others.