Lucknow, Oct 16,2022: Inadequate transport arrangements for those appearing in the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission’s Preliminary Eligibility Test (PET) led to widespread chaos at railway and bus stations on Saturday night.

The candidates could not get buses and trains to return to their homes and majority of them spent the night on the roads. More than 35 lakh candidates from across the state had registered for the two-day exams that concluded on Sunday.

Social media is filled with visuals showing platforms packed with candidates desperately trying to board trains. Bus stands were also jam-packed with students trying to find a place inside the buses. Some could be seen hanging form the windows.

Similar visuals were taken by journalists at Hapur railway station where some candidates were filmed making a dash for trains already in motion.

“Why were exam centres allotted so far away? And if that was the case, why weren’t adequate arrangements made,” the angry students asked.

More than 6.29 lakh candidates — nearly 34 per cent of the total — skipped the PET written exam, which was held over two days — Saturday and Sunday — and the reason mainly was inadequate transport facilities to reach the examination centres.

UP Transport Minister Daya Shankar Singh spoke to the candidates at Bareilly bus stand on Sunday and promised to provide enough buses once the exams conclude on Sunday evening.

Several opposition leaders have tweeted videos and photos, saying that the UP government is responsible for the chaos and the hardships faced by the candidates.

The government, meanwhile, has claimed that many of the videos circulating on social media and being tweeted by opposition leaders were fake and that extra trains and buses are being arranged for the examinees.

PET is a qualifying exam where a score enables a candidate to appear in future recruitment exams for Group C government jobs in the state.