The State cabinet today deferred its approval to the proposal for increasing the upper age limit for government jobs to 37 years from the present 32.
According to Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui, the cabinet which met here today debated on the matter regarding relaxation of the upper age limit by five years for recruitment in government jobs.
However, he said that the matter has been deferred as more fine tunings were required especially with regards to issues related to uniformed personnel such as police, home guards, forest guards and others.
“There are some reservations regarding uniformed persons. We need more clarity so we have not approved the proposal. We decided to defer it to the next cabinet meeting which will sit in the next few days,” Rymbui said.
He also said that police, home guards, forest guards and other uniformed personnel will have to undergo training after recruitment and hence before deciding on age relaxation for government job seekers, the government would also have to take into account the eligible age for uniformed personnel.
North Shillong MLA Adelbert Nongrum had recently met Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and demanded age relaxation for job seekers in the State from 32 years to 45 years.
Nongrum had also raised the issue during the budget session of the Assembly in March 2021. At that time the Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, sounded lukewarm about the idea of increasing the age limit, not only when it comes to the police but for other roles as well.
According to the CM, Meghalaya Civil Service officers have to be fit enough for physically demanding posts and a junior officer can spend the first 10 to 15 years in the field. Bringing in older new recruits could have other implications, such as giving them less time to garner experience and have fewer avenues for promotion, as well as affecting the pensions such officials would be entitled to after retirement, he said at the time.
It may be mentioned that on January 10, the Odisha government had relaxed the upper age limit for job seekers from general category till 38 years. Earlier, the upper age limit for them was 32 years. The age relaxation will be applicable to the recruitments being carried out in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Similarly, job aspirants from SC/ST and SEBC categories can apply for State government jobs up to 43 years. Women candidates will also be able to apply for the jobs till 43 years.
The Odisha government has also decided to give more relaxation to the person with disability (PwD) candidates. For General PwD candidates, the upper age limit has been raised to 48 years whereas ST/SC/SEBC PwD candidates (including women) can apply for State government jobs till 53 years.
