The arrangements were shoddy, at best; after being shunted from one part of the open ground to another, the 25,000 people were finally penned into the riding ground which had a four-foot-high wall. With the situation rapidly resembling a stampede at a football ground, the wall finally collapsed.

The candidates had turned up in response to the advertisement for recruitment to the state constabulary public. A `pandal' had been erected in the ground, from which the application forms for recruitment were to be distributed. This process began at 7 a.m., as scheduled, and proceedings were smooth till about 8.30 a.m. However, all this time the number of candidates kept increasing, according to candidate Ashok Nanabhai Garial, from Viramgam in Ahmedabad district.

Garial held the police mismanagement squarely responsible for the chaos that resulted. ``The situation began going out of control after 8.30 a.m. because though candidates kept increasing there was only one counter where forms were being distributed'', he said.

Adding to the problem was the fact that the serial numbers on the forms determined the test date; since a large number of candidates were from outside town, early test dates were at a premium. Soon, the crowd became restive and began lobbing shoes and chappals, said Bahadursinh Poojansinh, who had come from Modasa in Sabarkantha district. In fact, shoes and chappals could be seen littered all over the ground at the end of the day.

As the day grew hotter, the flaws in the arrangement were crudely exposed. There was little or no drinking water available; this reporter saw no arrangements, and none of the candidates spoken to recalled any such facility. Also, the shamiana was suited for 5-6,000 people, at most, and was used mainly by the police officials themselves.

Though the officials shifted the form distribution window to a far corner of the ground, they soon realised the situation there was equally bad and herded the recruits to the adjoining enclosed horse-riding ground. With all the pushing, shoving and occasional use of force by the police, it was little wonder that one of the walls collapsed.

Several candidates complained that they were either caned or slapped or had their heads banged against those of other candidates by the police itself. In a bid to ease the pressure, the police shifted the distribution window to the other side of the wall and directed the applicants to form a line and scale the wall to get the form.When contacted, Commissioner of Police Kuldip Sharma said that since the recruitment at Vadodara was mainly for people belonging to Central Gujarat region though candidates from other regions of the state were not excluded he had not expected such a large turnout. Also, he said, a recruitment test had recently been held in Ahmedabad, reducing the chances of a very high turnout here.