Police used water cannons and teargas against thousands of people marching towards the legislative assembly in eastern India’s Jharkhand on Monday as a youth-led protest over alleged irregularities in recruitment exams escalated despite the state government agreeing to cancel several of them.The demonstration in Jharkhand came on the heels of the “cockroach” protest in the national capital Delhi that forced federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to resign following an exam paper leak that affected millions of students across the country. The protesters breached police barricades and tried to reach the assembly in the state capital Ranchi but were thwarted by police personnel using batons, water cannons and teargas.The march came after more than two weeks of demonstrations by students and unemployed young people, who accused authorities of failing to address alleged irregularities, including question paper leaks, in recruitment exams for public sector jobs.The protesters were demanding sweeping reforms to the examination system, the cancellation of further tests and an independent investigation, with a point of contention being their demand for a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into alleged irregularities in the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level examination.“This agitation is not going to stop. This has become a mass movement,” student leader Devendra Nath Mahato, who has been on a hunger strike over the alleged irregularities, told ANI. “We will continue to march ahead.”A similar protest had rocked Delhi as thousands of people gathered in Delhi demanding the resignation of Mr Pradhan ⁠over the leak of the question paper for the national medical entrance exam that affected over two million students ​in ⁠May and was linked to several student suicides. In Jharkhand, authorities imposed restrictions around the assembly and deployed additional security ahead of the march. The restrictions covered a 750m radius around the assembly building between 6 and 12 August, the PTI news agency reported.Defending the police action against the protesters, Ranchi’s deputy police chief Ajay Aryan told The Hindu that officers had acted to prevent injuries as the crowd pressed towards the assembly. “No force was used but police had to push back to control the crowd. To disperse, since it was a huge crowd, police had to push back to ensure that no one was injured but we won’t call it lathi-charge,” he claimed. “It was reactionary.”Mr Aryan acknowledged that some protesters had been injured, including one person struck on the head by a policeman's baton, and said tear gas had been used as a deterrent.“Tear gas shells were also fired to disperse the crowd on the side so the impact is less,” he said. “We were using all deterrents to avoid any mishap.”The confrontation came one day after the Jharkhand government held six hours of talks with separate student delegations, and agreed to cancel the 14th Jharkhand Public Service Commission preliminary examination as well as backlog examinations held in 2023 and 2025.It also agreed to involve the federal anti-money laundering agency, Enforcement Directorate, in investigating alleged financial irregularities linked to the 14th exam. By doing so, the government said it had accepted 98 per cent of the demands of the protesters.Deepika Pandey Singh, a state minister, said the government respected the right of the students to demonstrate while seeking to maintain public order.“In a democracy, there is permission for protests; people are free to hold them. The administration is taking the necessary actions to maintain law and order. There will be no use of pellet guns, teargas or lathi-charge here,” she told reporters before the march.“It wasn’t a lack of communication. Talks have been ongoing for four days. We agreed to everything that was within the state government’s capacity to address,” she added.The political crisis deepened on Monday as the Criminal Investigation Department arrested former chairperson of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission, L Khiangte, in connection with the alleged recruitment irregularities. He had been questioned four times since 28 July and his arrest brought the number of people held in the investigation to 20.Chief minister Hemant Soren had earlier appealed for dialogue. “Justice will not only be done, but will also be seen to be done,” he said.