India police clash with protestors over jobs and exam transparency

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves after addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort. [Sajjad Hussain, AFP]

Indian students and unemployed youth clashed with police on Tuesday as they marched towards the residence of the chief minister of the eastern state of Bihar, demanding access jobs and transparency in recruitment exams.

Police in Bihar, home to about 130 million people, used water cannons as a few thousand protestors broke through security barricades in the regional capital Patna, an AFP reporter saw.

The protests came a month after massive youth-led demonstrations in New Delhi forced the ouster of India's education minister over alleged irregularities in conducting key competitive examinations.

Footage from local media showed demonstrators in Patna demanding access to government jobs, the cancellation of a key recruitment exam and changes to the examination format announced by the government.

Local police accused some protestors of attacking security personnel.

"Police will identify those involved in stone pelting at police and will take action against them," Patna police superintendent Kartikeya K Sharma told reporters on Tuesday.

The protests began last week with unemployed youth demanding jobs, but they later expanded to include calls for education reform.

Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary said his office was "listening to every student's voice".

The government "is launching the 'Student Support Camp' starting today for the prompt and timely resolution of students' problems, complaints, and suggestions", Choudhary said in a X post on Tuesday.

The "students will be able to register their complaints online and track their status", he added.

The tight employment market in India makes government jobs, which offer long-term stability, a major draw for millions.

Since the massive youth-led protests organised by the online Cockroach Janta Party in New Delhi, there have been similar demonstrations in other states challenging both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition parties.

In southern Karnataka, members of a BJP-linked student body staged a protest near the state chief minister's residence on Tuesday over alleged irregularities in recruitment for government jobs.

Visuals from the Press Trust of India showed police personnel forcefully removing demonstrators.