Students in India’s Jharkhand state staged a sustained protest over alleged irregularities in government job recruitment examinations, marching toward the state assembly on Monday morning. Protesters broke through barricades on the road in Ranchi as they moved toward the assembly. Police later used water cannons to disperse them, but the demonstrators did not back down.

Three rounds of talks between students and the government side failed. The protesters demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation be given responsibility for investigating the alleged exam irregularities and that the examination system be reformed. Hemant’s government did not accept those demands, the report said. Protesters then called for a peaceful march from the old assembly to the new assembly, urging students and parents from all districts of Jharkhand to join.

Carrying banners and placards and chanting slogans, participants alleged that authorities tried to stop them with road barricades. Citing sources, Anandabazar Online reported that they were halted three kilometres from the assembly complex after about half an hour of marching. They sat down at the site, where hunger-striking student Devendranath joined them by ambulance after eight days on strike. Police used water cannons when protesters again attempted to breach the barricades.