Patna: Nearly 100 unemployed youths demonstrated at Kargil Chowk here on Wednesday, demanding the Centre lift the mandatory Industrial Training Institute certificate criteria for Group D railway jobs.

A series of violent protests have been launched over the past week. The unemployed men demand the Centre allow Class X-graduates to be eligible for the railway jobs. The candidates also demand that the age limit be revised.

Last week, the railway ministry announced its largest recruitment process for 90,000 Group C and Group D posts. In Group C, applications have been invited for posts of assistant loco pilots, technicians, while Group D posts are for track maintainer, gangman, gateman, porter and others. For both categories, candidates have to be Class X-graduates and Industrial Training Institute certificate holders.

Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Janipur in rural Patna, said: "Many students like me are preparing for railway examination for the past several years. Earlier, the minimum educational qualification was only Class X. But this time when vacancies have come after four years, the government has added ITI certificate as a mandatory qualification.

"If the government had to make changes to educational qualifications, they should have issued the notices earlier - two to three years ago - so that aspirants without ITI certificates could have taken two-year ITI training from any recognised institutes," he added.

Mritunjay Rai, another candidate echoed Sanjeev's contention.

"The Narendra Modi government launched the railway recruitment process after four years, but because of changes brought in mandatory educational qualification, many deserving candidates waiting years for jobs will miss the chance. The government should at least relax criteria for Group D vacancies," Rai said.

Last week, protests that started from Ara spread to Aurangabad, Patna and other districts. Candidates demanded relaxation in age limit. The Centre on Monday revised the upper age limit for groups C and D - in the unreserved category candidates up to 30 years can apply for assistant loco pilots and loco pilots. Age limit has been relaxed by two years in other categories (SC/ST, OBC) too.

Similarly, for Group D exams, the upper age limit has been fixed at 30 years against the earlier 28 years in unreserved category.

Now, the candidates are adamant that the ITI certificate criteria be removed.