Chaos At Territorial Army Recruitment Rally At Pithoragarh Due To Huge Rush

Dehradun: Chaos erupted during a Territorial Army recruitment rally in Pithoragarh as a huge crowd of youths gathered there from neighbouring states due a sudden cancellation of a recruitment rally in Bihar's Danapur, the Pithoragarh district administration said.

Pithoragarh District Magistrate Vinod Goswami said there was a lack of communication from the Army about the cancellation of the Danapur rally, that is why the district administration was unprepared to deal with the rush. "If the administration was informed in time about the sudden cancellation of the recruitment in Danapur, the candidates would not have faced inconvenience," he said in a statement.

He said that due to the sudden cancellation and non-announcement of fresh dates redirected a large number candidates from Uttar Pradesh to the Pithoragarh recruitment venue which led to the chaos, he said. Videos circulating on social media showed the Pithoragarh venue overwhelmed with candidates with a large number of them trying to enter the rally ground by climbing its gates which eventually broke down.

Police had to resort to lathicharge, and according to testimonies in the footage, which have not been confirmed by officials, two youths were injured in the chaos. The situation in the district is under total control now, Goswami said. According to Goswami, the recruitment in Territorial Army was to be held in Pithoragarh for which two days were fixed between November 12 and 24 for candidates from different states.

He said about 25,000 candidates had reached Pithoragarh till Thursday out of which 18,000 candidates had returned by noon after completing the recruitment process. He said that earlier he had a meeting with Colonel Uttam Kumar Singh of the Territorial Army who informed him that this recruitment is being conducted for 113 posts for Uttarakhand and 411 posts for other states.

In the meeting, Colonel Singh also informed that while they expect a sizeable number of candidates on dates fixed for Uttarkhand, the numbers may not be that great on dates for other states, according to Goswami. He said that the adminstration thus made enough preparation for dates fixed for candidates from Uttarakhand, the DM said.

Colonel Singh also informed that the recruitment was to be held in Sagar (Madhya Pradesh) and Danapur (Bihar) as well, Goswami said. He said that in view of the possibility of candidates from Western Uttar Pradesh coming to Pithoragarh on the dates fixed for Uttar Pradesh, arrangements were made for them, but those from other parts of the states also thronged after the Danapur rally was suddenly cancelled.

He said the Territorial Army cancelled the rally on November 17 and informed the Pithoragarh district administration through a letter on November 18. The district magistrate alleged Army officials neither made any phone call nor informed him through email. He said the candidates who were going to Danapur in Bihar reached Tanakpur in the state on November 18 and 19 to participate in Pithoragarh recruitment.

He said from November 12 to 17, a total of 8,274 candidates from Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh participated in the recruitment rally and transport and other arrangements worked smoothly in the district. But, he said that due to the cancellation of Danapur recruitment and non-rescheduling of fresh recruitment dates, candidates from other states including Uttar Pradesh flocked to Pithoragarh in large numbers.

Goswami said that the candidates started reaching Pithoragarh from the afternoon of 19 November and by night about 12,000 candidates had arrived. The district administration worked on a war footing to make all the arrangements for security, drinking water, health, food etc. to manage the sudden rush, he said.

After the intervention of the administration, the dates of Danapur were rescheduled from November 26 to December 1, he said.