On the midnight of Thursday, when the doors for applicants to register online to be eligible for the process of recruitment for 539 Sub-Inspectors of Police, including Station Fire Officer (SFO), closed, there were over 2 lakh aspirants, including about 25,000 women, seeking the jobs.

The recruitment process starts with the preliminary written test (PWT), a whopping 1,86,340 (SI-Civil) and 14,954 (SI-Technical) were received. This includes 23,656 women (SI-Civil) and 1,641 (SI-Technical). The PWT will be held on April 17 at all district headquarters and select revenue divisional headquarter towns.

“This really is unprecedented and while the sheer volumes are beyond our expectations, the onus is on us to ensure transparency by leveraging Information and Communication Technology systems to the core,” said a senior officer on condition of anonymity at the Telangana State-level Police Recruitment Board (TSLPRB).

Asked to explain further, he said that a major concern they wished to overcome was that of impersonation in the PWT. Efforts were on to fingerprint every applicant using a scanner at the examination centre itself. “The bio-metric database thus created will help us effectively put a check on impersonation,” he said.

Another officer explained as to how an edit option was given to candidates who had applied for the post of SFO but intended to apply to other posts including SIs (Civil, Armed Reserve and Special Armed Reserve, Telangana Special Police and Special Protection Force) due to the relaxation in upper age limit by a year. They could use the facility by sending a mail and get an SMS on their registered mobile phones.

Those who were yet to receive SMS or those who had not yet availed the facility, would get it after the PWT, once they were declared qualified and when they come for verification of documents and appear for physical measurements test (PMT). The different stages in the recruitment process comprise PWT, PMT, physical efficiency test and final written examination.

Hall tickets

Download of hall tickets from the website www.tslprb.in for the PWT will start a week before April 17. The editing option in Filled in Online Application Form will be given to the candidates to upload ‘Photograph + Signature’ from 16-03-2016 to 21-03-2016 who have not uploaded their photo with signature. They could send their requests tosupportsi@tslprb.in. The link to upload thus will be sent to their registered mobile and those who re-upload their photograph are needed to bring original photo identity proof - Aadhar card, voter ID, driving licence and the like.