SHILLONG: The state youth wing of the Khun Hynnewtrap National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) State on Tuesday staged a demonstration in front of the Meghalaya Secretariat demanding raising of the Upper age limit of SC/ST candidates for Civil Service examinations in Meghalaya.
The organisation made it clear that they might seek intervention of the court in the matter if their demand was not met in time by the state government.
Speaking to media persons during the protest, president of the youth wing, Thomas Passah said that the state government must amend the advertisement for the recruitment to the Meghalaya Civil Service by increasing the qualifying maximum age to 40 years for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates
He said that upper age limit for ST/ SC candidate in most of the North Eastern states was 40 years and Assam had even fixed the upper age limit at 43 years, but Meghalaya was the only state in the country with an upper age limit of 32 years thereby providing the least employment opportunity to the local youth.
Passah said they met the Principal Secretary of the Personnel department last Friday and they were informed that the file was under process.
“We were hoping to get some good news from the Government on Monday but surprisingly, there was no information which compelled us to come out today in front of Secretariat and protest against the adamant attitude of the Meghalaya Government.
It may be mentioned that the last date for submission of applications for the examinations is August 31 and the youth wing wants the Government to amend the upper age limit by Wednesday.
Accusing the Meghalaya Government of blocking the employment opportunities for the local youth, Passah informed that as per para 9 (2) of the Meghalaya Civil Service Rules, the state government could relax the upper age limit with respect to any category of Civil Service exam.
Stating that the Meghalaya Government does not have the will to provide employment to the youth, the party added that such attitude of the government was forcing youth to take the illegal ways to earn their livelihood.