Imphal, February 21: Following intense pressure from the Opposition bench to relax the upper age limit to 35 for General category, 38 for OBC and 40 for ST/SC in the State Civil Services competitive examination scheduled to be held by the MPSC on August 3 this year, Chief Minister O Ibobi refrained from giving a concrete assurance but nonetheless said that he would see what can be done.

Significantly Congress MLA, I Hemochandra also supported the motion raised by the Opposition members.

On the other hand the Chief Minister also assured the House that the interest of the existing employees of the Secretariat would not be affected while selecting 24 new Section Officers for the Department.

Responding to a call attention motion jointly raised by O Joy, Dr Ng Bijoy and RK Anand to relax the upper age limit for the State Civil Services competitive examination, the Chief Minister said that taking into account the fact that the MPSC was defunct from 1999 to 2005, a one time age relaxation of 35 years for General category was enforced in the examination held in 2005 .

After minutely studying the cases of other States, the Cabinet, after due deliberation decided to fix the upper age limit for General candidates at 30, 33 for OBC and 35 for ST/SC, claimed the Chief Minister.

Giving details, the Chief Minister said that the examination will be held in three phases.

The written examination will carry 2000 marks while the viva voce will carry 300 marks.

The first step is of course the preliminary examination, prior to the written test.

Asserting that the examination will be carried out in a fair manner, the Chief Minister said that everything will depend on merit.

On the demand to raise the upper age limit, Ibobi said that all aspects will be looked into to see what can be done.

Dwelling on the ongoing strike launched by the employees of the Secretariat, the Chief Minister observed that since the Secretariat is the backbone of administration, the Cabinet after minute deliberation, decided to recruit 24 fresh Section Officers.

Assuring the House, the Chief Minister said that the interest of the existing employees will not be compromised and added that a promotion quota will be put in place so that those entitled to be promoted to the post of SOs are promoted.

The State Government is firmly committed to Service Protection, said the Chief Minister and appealed to the employees to call off their strike.

Earlier raising the call attention motion in connection with the demand to relax the upper age limit of the candidates, O Joy said that though the MPSC was set up in 1972, it has so far conducted only seven competitive examinations.

Moreover the MPSC has been lying in comatose for many years and taking advantage of the situation, numerous backdoor appointments were made, said Joy and added that this has led to poor administrative work by incompetent officials.

Asserting his stand, Joy said that it is unacceptable that the State should fix the age limit at 30, 33 and 35 respectively for different categories, while other advanced States have fixed the age limit at 35 for General candidates, 38 for OBC and 40 for ST/SC.

Candidates who could not crack the civil service examination by the UPSC by the age of 30, but who nonetheless have good potential should be given the opportunity by the State by extending the upper age limit, said Joy further.

The MPP president also suggested that if any kins of the members of the MPSC are appearing in the examination, then they should not take part in the examination process.

He also suggested that personalities from outside Manipur may be appointed to conduct the viva-voce to eliminate the chances of favouritism as well as to record the interview on tape as well as video.

Joining in Ng Bijoy said that it would be right for the Government to fix the upper age limit for joining Government services at 35 .

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