Jammu: Scores of aspirants who are appearing in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) examination have urged the J&K administration to enhance the upper age limit for them at par with other states in the country.
One of the aggrieved aspirants complained that J&K Public Service Commission (JKPSC) has issued a notification inviting applications from the aspirants for appearing in the J&K Combined Competitive (Preliminary) examination 2023 for filling 75 vacancies.
“But the JKPSC has set the age cap at 32 years for Jammu and Kashmir aspirants who are supposed to appear in the competitive exam in Open Merit category, which is the lowest age limit for a State PSC exam in the entire country,” the aspirant said.
As per the notification, the upper age limit for reserved category candidates and in-service candidates has been fixed as 34 years and 35 years for Physically challenged candidates.
Notably, the notification for filing of 75 JKAS/JKPS vacancies as per SRO 103 of 2018 makes thousands of KAS aspirants ineligible who were waiting for PSC notification and preparing for exams.
“SRO 103 reduces the age of open merit students from 37 to 32 years. It is a grave injustice to unemployed youth of J&K,” an aspirant said.
The aspirants said the cap on age limit of 32 years has put hundreds of aspirants in distress as they have already crossed the age limit in previous years.”The JKAS aspirants are already facing the challenge of a high unemployment rate of 17.1 percent as of February 2023, and this new age limit has compounded their problems,” the aspirant said.
The JKAS aspirants said the upper age limit in other states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Haryana was between 40-42 years for their State PSC exams.
“The discontinuous conduct of exams and the high unemployment rate have pushed the JKAS aspirants against the wall,” the aspirants said and demanded that the upper age limit for J&K aspirants for appearing in JKAS exams should be permanently enhanced at par with other states to provide some relief to the aspirants who are above the age of 32.
“We appeal to the JKPSC authorities and J&K administration to consider our demand and address it to resolve it once forever,” the aspirants said.The aspirants said that hundreds of candidates are likely to miss the Combined Competitive Exam (CCE)-2023, as the government has kept the upper age limit of the aspirants from 32 years.
