
Candidates appearing for the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission’s Preliminary Eligibility Test (PET) on Friday, 30 October faced a gruelling ordeal of distant centre allotments and overcrowded trains, the Deccan Herald reports. Aspirants reported sleeping on railway station floors at Bareilly after travelling 300 to 500 km from their home districts. Several said they had earlier missed exams such as the Railway Junior Engineer test due to similarly distant centres, and called on the government to set venues nearer candidates’ homes. The Bareilly administration confirmed 62,024 candidates were registered at 23 centres and said elaborate security arrangements had been made. NDTV Profit reported that at the exam centres, candidates were required to remove shoes, jewellery and undergo hair checks as part of strict entry procedures.

NDTV Profit’s report focuses narrowly on the strict entry checks in the exam hall, making no mention of candidate hardship or travel complaints. The Deccan Herald piece leads with aspirants sleeping on railway platforms and centres allocated hundreds of kilometres away, quoting multiple candidates who say the system is unfair and has eroded their trust in the government. The two outlets cover the same UPSSSC PET event with almost no factual overlap: NDTV Profit describes security at the centre, while Deccan Herald reports distance and exhaustion before the exam. The administration’s statement appears only in Deccan Herald’s closing lines. A reader gets the procedural picture from the first source and the human cost from the second. The key open question, raised by Deccan Herald’s candidates, is whether the commission will review centre allotment for future exams.
Coverage: 2 sources, 1 government-critical, 1 neutral
Sources (2): ndtvprofit.com (neutral report), deccanherald.com (government critical)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.