The Uttar Pradesh government has appointed 470 sportspersons to the state police under the skilled sportsperson quota, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath saying the recruitment process now rewards talent and performance rather than recommendations or money. Appointment letters were distributed at an event at Lok Bhawan in Lucknow on Thursday.
The appointments include 303 men and 167 women. In the Constable (Civil Police) category, 295 athletes were selected, including 148 men and 147 women. Another 63 were appointed as Sub-Inspectors in the Civil Police, comprising 43 men and 20 women. A further 132 athletes were selected as constables in the Provincial Armed Constabulary.
Addressing the new recruits, Adityanath said the previous Samajwadi Party government had operated what he described as a job syndicate, claiming that candidates once needed political recommendations or family connections to secure employment. He contrasted that period with the current recruitment system and said appointments were now based on an athlete’s talent, hard work and performance.
The chief minister’s comments were part of a wider political attack on the Samajwadi Party. He referred to its political formula as the “Pradesh Dubao Alliance” and described the National Democratic Alliance as the “Naukri Denge Alliance”. These were political characterisations made during the speech and were not accompanied by supporting recruitment data in the report.
Adityanath said the appointment of sportspersons to the police represented a transition “from jersey to uniform”. He told the recruits that the discipline, teamwork, commitment and physical preparation developed through sport would also be expected in police service. He added that strong performance, regular practice and professional development could create further opportunities for promotion and advancement.
According to the chief minister, more than 1,400 skilled athletes have now joined the Uttar Pradesh Police. He proposed assigning each of these athletes to a village and sending them there at least once a week to conduct sports activities and connect young people with organised physical training. He compared the proposed role with the weekly village visits undertaken by women beat police officers.
The proposal would give police athletes a community-facing responsibility beyond regular policing, although the report did not specify how villages would be selected, which department would coordinate the programme, or whether a formal operational order had been issued. The announcement also did not provide details of the total recruitment budget, training schedule or deployment locations for the newly appointed personnel.
The chief minister also urged the sportspersons to participate in campaigns against drug addiction, describing them as potential public ambassadors for prevention efforts. He criticised the amount of time young people spend watching short-form online videos, contrasting social-media popularity with the longer-term benefits of sporting achievement.
The appointments expand the state’s use of sports-based recruitment in the police force. Adityanath said there had been no policy for the direct recruitment of sportspersons into the police before 2017. The immediate next steps for the 470 recruits will be their induction and service deployment, while the proposed village sports programme will require further administrative details before its implementation can be assessed.
