41-yr-old & 21-yr-old join UP police together: An ex-armyman & his son | India News
MEERUT: Among the 60,000-odd candidates appointed this week in UP’s largest-ever police recruitment drive, a 41-year-old retired Army havildaar and his 21-year-old son from a village in Hapur received their constable appointment letters together from Union home minister Amit Shah and CM Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. Their selection, confirmed after over two years of joint preparation, marked a rare father-son achievement in the state’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its police force.For Yashpal Singh, the transition from Army fatigues to khaki uniform began not with ambition, but with the quiet rituals of family life. In 2019, after 16 years in the Army, he took voluntary retirement. He spent a brief period working with Army Ordnance Corps in Delhi and tried to adjust to a slower pace.Around that time, his son, Shekhar Nagar, then 18, had just finished school and was beginning to prepare for a career in uniform – not as a soldier, but as a policeman. Somewhere between early morning chai and dinner-table conversations, a plan took shape. Yashpal would not just support Shekhar’s preparation, he would join him.They enrolled in the same coaching centre in Delhi-NCR. For over two years, they studied the same syllabus, attempted the same practice tests, and faced the same exam cancellations and delays. At first, Shekhar found the situation odd – his father sitting next to him in an online class, raising a hand to ask about a reasoning problem. “In the beginning, it was very awkward for me , but slowly I got over it,” he told TOI. Their strengths complemented each other. Yashpal brought rigour in general knowledge and discipline, while Shekhar helped with logic and numerical reasoning.Yashpal is now set to begin his training in Shahjahanpur, and Shekhar will report in Bareilly. Meanwhile their village, Udayrampur Nagla, celebrated their success.
