Thousands of youths from across Ranchi district are making a beeline for the employment exchange at Kutchery Chowk, recent job ads by Jharkhand Police and Jharkhand Military Police triggering an unprecedented rush that underlines the helplessness of educated unemployed youngsters who are even ready to work as Grade-IV staff.

Scores of job-aspirants, many of whom are graduates, have been swarming at the employment exchange for the past fortnight since the twin forces came up with notifications, inviting applications essentially for Grade-IV posts in different districts.

While Jharkhand Police are planning to fill up 1,000-odd Grade-IV posts, Jharkhand Military Police seek to hire 269 in the same category.

Candidates applying for these jobs must have the employment exchange enrolment numbers, the reason behind the unusual rush at the Ranchi centre.

Sources claimed that not only Ranchi, the remaining 42 employment exchanges across Jharkhand too had been receiving huge crowds of hopefuls for the past two weeks.

"Generally, on a normal day, only a handful come the employment exchange for enrolment. But for the past few days, there has been huge crowd. Aspirants can enrol themselves online but the server is currently down," said Rajesh Ekka, deputy director, Ranchi exchange.

Anup Ranjan Gupta, a Ranchi College pass-out from Bundu, said: "I am preparing for banking and clerical services. But, any government job is good. Hence, I have decided to apply for the police job, for which enrolment at the exchange is a must," he added.

Most of the candidates are waiting in long serpentine queues because of the same compulsion.

According to officials at centre, a number of government departments and central undertakings, like BCCL, apart from the police, have also come with job opportunities, adding to the rush.

"I am applying for the post of a lab technician at BCCL. There is no specific instruction in the application form that the enrolment number is required. But, I don't want to take any chance," said Jaishree, a collage student from Jamshedpur who is currently staying in Ranchi.

"We work till the last applicant in the queue gets enrolment number. In the last 15 days, around 10,000 new aspirants applicants have been given enrolment numbers, apart from around a thousand who have renewed their enrolments," said P.K. Jha, the assistant director, Ranchi employment exchange.

The records suggest 55,897 aspirants were enrolled at the Ranchi employment exchange last year, whereas this year's figure stands around 58,000, excluding the 10,000-odd registered themselves in the last 15 days.