After a gap of eight years, over-aged employees of the State Textile Department will be allowed to appear in a departmental exam before their service can be regularised.
There are 196 employees who have been working in the Textile Department since 2015 but about 115 of them will not be able to appear for the exams because they would be over-aged.
Hence, as a one-time measure, the State cabinet today decided and agreed to condone the age for the over-aged candidates in order to allow them to appear for the exams.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that there is no guarantee that they will get the job, but the selection process will happen and they will be allowed to appear.
Sangma explained that since 2015, there has not been any appointment or any kind of recruitment examination being held in the Textile Department.
“There were, in fact, many people who were supported in terms of a stipend by the government of Meghalaya. And after clearing those different programmes, those particular candidates who cleared those particular courses, their appointments were due. They were asking for direct appointments to be made, which again, required some detailed assessment to be made and in the process from 2015 none of the individuals were appointed and no recruitment process also took place because of certain clarity that was required at that point in time. Hence, this issue has been pending for a very long time,” Sangma explained.
According to him, the cabinet today came to a conclusion that the department will be holding the recruitment exams and all the candidates can appear for the examination. The selection process will be conducted and based on the selection process, appointments will be given.
Asked why the government cannot regularise the jobs of these over-aged staff since it is about eight years now, Sangma said that the appointment process was not followed and so the department had to rectify that.
