UP police constable exam: Aspirants journeying miles to don the Khaki uniform

The journey for three friends, Amlesh Kumar, Ravi Kiran, and Harsh Rajput, began at a small station in their hometown of Bihar’s Samastipur, continues despite their stops at exam centres in Kanpur, Lakhimpur, and Lucknow. The trio, all under 22 years old, embarked on their travels three days ago, spending nights at railway stations and on roadsides near the examination centers, driven by their pursuit of the khaki uniform.

Similar to this trio, thousands of aspirants are enduring the rough journey in pursuit of a job in law enforcement, some traveling alone, while others accompanied by family members, to write the UP Police Constable exams across 113 centres in the city.

HT spoke with some of these aspirants about their journeys and experiences at railway stations, bus depots, and various exam centres. “We started in Samastipur. We reached Kanpur on Friday night after a 12-hour journey in a crowded train. After taking the exam in Kanpur, we traveled to Lakhimpur and now to Lucknow for the final exam, as all three of us were assigned different centres,” said Amlesh Kumar and Harsh Rajput outside an exam centre in Matiyari, while waiting for Ravi Kiran to finish his exam.

Pawan Kumar from Bihar’s Sasaram district, who is a government job aspirant himself, accompanied his sister to Lucknow for her exam. They traveled over 10 hours without reservations, changing trains along the way. They arrived in the city at 9 in the morning and had to wait on the roadside for her exam, scheduled for 3 p.m. “The journey was tough, but my sister is very hopeful for a police job,” he said.

Leesa Rajput, 20 years old, came from Delhi with her mother Rajyashree. “We arrived in the morning but had to wait here on the footpath, as my daughter’s slot was at 3 p.m.,” said Rajyashree, lounging on a bedsheet spread out on the roadside. “We set out from Delhi on Saturday morning and are hoping to go to Ayodhya for Ram Mandir darshan before we return home on Monday.”

Another aspirant, Ranjeet Kumar from Gaya, faced an unfortunate turn of events, missing his exam due to an auto driver who dropped him at the wrong location, 18 kilometers from his exam centre.

Trouble on the tracks

Throngs of aspirants were seen at railway stations due to a shortage of seats and large crowds onboard. Shashi Bhushan Rai from Chhapra, Bihar, and Ganesh Kumar from Nawada, Bihar, both shared issues during their train journey to Lucknow.

“The train to Lucknow was running late, and I cannot get a train to go back to Bihar. Now I will wait at the station for the train back home,” said Rai. Meanwhile, Kumar complained about the crowded station and how railway authorities were unhelpful to passengers stuck on the platform.

Another aspirant, Arun, faced a complicated journey home to Jhansi. “No train is going to Jhansi from Lucknow Junction, so unfortunately, I have to take a train to Kanpur and then switch trains from there,” he said.

Exam special trains

To manage the overflowing passengers, Northern Railways (NR) of Lucknow division operated multiple exam special trains. “Four trains between Varanasi-Gorakhpur & Varanasi-Ballia were running on Sunday,” said Rekha Sharma, senior divisional commercial manager, NR, Lucknow.

Multiple trains to other states were also operated for outstation students, as informed by Lucknow NR DRM SM Sharma in a tweet. He stated, “Train numbers 04266, 04250 were run between Lucknow and Patna via stations like Sultanpur, Nihalgarh, Varanasi Jn, Buxar, Danapur, Arrah station.”

(Inputs from Animesh Mishra)