Bihar’s Katihar district on Sunday witnessed protests and arson over chief minister Nitish Kumar’s alleged reluctance to stop and listen to people’s demands during his ongoing Samadhan Yatra.

The incident occurred at Dighri along National Highway 81 in Kodha block immediately after Nitish’s motorcade sped away without stopping to meet a large number of people who had gathered on both sides of the road.

The protesters burnt tyres and tore and torched posters and flags of Nitish’s Janata Dal United (JDU) to block the road. They also raised slogans against him and questioned why he was calling it Samadhan Yatra or solution tour when he had no time to meet them to listen to their problems and demands.

“Educated youths have been forced to become either marginal farmers or hawkers and tea and snacks vendors for want of proper jobs. Some are selling vegetables. What solution Nitish is giving to us? He has no time to meet us. He should not have named his tour Samadhan Yatra,” said Munna Kumar, a protester.

While the protest continued, the people there managed to stop CPI-ML MLA Mehboob Alam, who represents the Balrampur constituency in Katihar. He had to stop there for some time and listen to their demands.

“The people were upset that the chief minister did not stop. They wanted to voice their concerns to him. I stopped and listened to them for some time,” Alam told The Telegraph.

In a separate incident, Alam staged a dharna in Katihar town after some police personnel misbehaved with his driver.

“We had parked our vehicle off the road near Katihar collectorate to have some tea at a stall. Suddenly some police personnel started behaving rashly with my driver asking him to move the vehicle. I resisted and asked them whether this is the way they behave with the poor. I sat on the road for around 10–15 minutes to protest against their behaviour but then left to attend a review meeting chaired by the chief minister,” he said.

The CPI-ML is a part of the ruling Grand Alliance in Bihar.

Katihar DM Udayan Mishra said the Dighri protest was unwarranted as Nitish was not scheduled to stop there.