Limit problem not age
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 04 , 2013 -

When Akhilesh Yadav raised the upper age limit for candidates appearing in competitive examinations conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) from 35 years to 40 years in June, 2012, many eyebrows had been raised.

The announcement came not long after Akhilesh was sworn in as the 33rd Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in May 2012 and many of his political detractors saw it as a ploy to win over the young voters with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

In fact, Samajwadi Party is one political party which relies heavily on youth power and the young voters had played a major role in the landslide victory of the Party in the Assembly elections that saw the emergence of the junior Yadav as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.

So, there is truth in the criticism of his political detractors.

But at the same time, raising the age bar from 35 to 40 years had enable more than 10 lakh aspirants to try their luck in State civil service examinations, thus, helping in reducing the problem of unemployment in Uttar Pradesh that had remained surging during the previous Government of Mayawati, who was strongly opposed to any demand for raising the age limit of candidates appearing for State competitive examinations, maintaining that 35 years is already in excess of 5 years prescribed by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Bringing the issue closer home, even though various student bodies have appealed for relaxation of age limit, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh has categorically made it clear that there would be no question of relaxing the age bar for candidates, who are set to appear in the Manipur Combined Civil Service Examination from this year.

The Chief Minister maintained that relaxation of age bar for aspiring candidates had already been done once in 2010 and as the State Government has decided to conduct the combined civil service examinations every year through Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) on the line of UPSC, henceforth, strict norms on age limit 30 years for the eligible candidates have to be followed.

But the question here is, does following the pattern and guidelines of UPSC entail that one should overlook the local context and ground reality of the States concerned? Definitely, not.

Every State Civil Service Examination, whether it be in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, West Bengal, etc, are being conducted on the pattern and guidelines of UPSC.

But the Governments in these States never lost sight of the interest of its people and the problems confronting, peculiar of their own.

Hence, even if the upper age limit prescribed for UPSC examinations is 30 years, UP Government has extended it to 40 years from the earlier 35 years.

Similarly, aspirants up to the age of 40 years can appear in provincial services in Bihar and Jharkhand, while in Rajasthan and West Bengal the upper age limit for their State Civil Service examinations has been respectively fixed at 37 years and 32 years.

What does Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh has to say to this?