HYDERABAD: In a bid to win back the youth and unemployed to the Congress fold, chief minister Kiran Reddy is seriously considering a proposal to increase the upper age limit for government jobs by at least five years. A decision regarding it is expected to be taken in a fortnight.

Kiran Kumar Reddy had announced a two-year relaxation in age limit for job seekers as a one-time relief. On January 1, 2012, the state government then issued orders about the relaxation in upper age limit for all categories of candidates.

With notifications for the Group I and Group II exams scheduled in the month of April, more than 4,000 government jobs are up for the grabs. Considering this, ministers Raghuveera Reddy and Sabita Reddy in the Kiran cabinet suggested an increase in the age limit one more time so that nearly 10 lakh unemployed can be benefitted. “The Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal has recently increased the upper age limit to 40 and Akhilesh Yadav of UP also followed suit. This has generated goodwill for the respective governments there. The notifications to fill up the vacancies are not being released in time, damaging the interests of the unemployed. The delay in release of recruitment notifications can be compensated by relaxing the upper age limit,” said N Raghuveera Reddy in his letter to the chief minister.

Home minister Sabita Reddy, in her letter, pointed that the governments of Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttarakhand have also increased the upper age limit to benefit the unemployed youth. She said that an early decision on this matter would benefit those preparing for the Group1, Group 2 and Group 4 examinations to be conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC).

West Bengal increased the upper age limit from 37 to 40 in February last year, followed by Uttar Pradesh which increased it from 35 to 40 in October. Uttarakhand upped the age limit to 40 in August and in Rajasthan, the upper age limit was increased to 37 from 34. In Bihar and Jharkhand, aspirants up to the age of 40 can appear for all provincial services.

The maximum limit is 34 years for general candidates, 39 years for SC, ST and BCs and 44 years for physically handicapped candidates in AP. For service staff, the age limit for SC, ST and BC categories is 39 years and for in-service physically handicapped candidates, it’s 49 years.tnn