There was chaos and panic among passengers at Charbagh Station on Sunday, though railway authorities shared regular alerts about the availability of several alternative trains, including examination special, for aspirants.
Team TOI visited inside the train coaches and found more than 10 aspirants sitting on lower reserved berths along with regular passengers. The anxiety to reach home among them was so much that many preferred to travel inside coach lavatories and on exit and entry of coaches.
Railways authorities said that though special trains were being run and announcements about them were being made, in the haste to reach home, aspirants took whichever train they found first. Most of the examinees who took the test in Lucknow were heading towards Prayagraj, Ambedkarnagar, Azamgarh and Varanasi.
Trains like Ganga-Gomti ExpressLucknow–Prayagraj Sangam Express and Rajdhani Express (New Delhi-Dibrugarh) were jam-packed. There was no space even in the toilets.
Women coaches in Lucknow –Prayagraj Sangam express were occupied by scores of male aspirants of UPPET causing inconvenience to women passengers.
Tulsi Kumari, a candidate who was returning to her hometown Prayagraj said, “Male candidates have occupied the entire women coach. Don’t know how we would manage the whole night in case of any kind of emergency. We are also apprehensive that due to this, something untoward may not happen in the night.”
Deepak Yadav, who came from New Delhi by Rajdhani Express to his hometown in Lucknow said, “I was stunned to see such a crowd at the station. When I alighted with my luggage, many candidates came my way. I was not able to come out because they were pushing me in. I told them again and again that I had to leave the train but no one listened. I thought I was trapped but meanwhile police men came and helped me out.”
Ruchika Singh, a passenger who was going to her hometown in Prayagraj said, “Despite having reserved a seat I was forced to sit in a suffocating environment among the UPPET candidates. I never thought that this would happen, or I would have cancelled my ticket.”
Meanwhile, DRM Lucknow Suresh Kumar Sapra inspected the preparations of the railway authorities at Charbagh prior to the end of the UPPET exam timings. “The number of candidates who reached the railway station to board the train was more than what railway could have handled. However, no untoward incident happened, fortunately,” said a senior railway official.
Similar situations were reported in Kanpur, Prayagraj, Moradabad, Varanasi and other railway stations of UP.
In all, over 25 lakh out of 37.5 lakh registered aspirants took the UPPET held at 1,899 centres across the state on Saturday and Sunday. The test was conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UPSSSC) for recruitment to group B and C posts in the state government jobs.