The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday approved a proposal for extension of five years of upper age relaxation in government recruitments for bonafide residents of the state, taking the maximum age to 40.

However, the upper age relaxation, a one-time benefit, will not be applicable for fresh recruitments in the police department.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, a government official said.

The said one-time relaxation is effective from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2028, he said.

At present, the maximum age for candidates applying for state government jobs is 35 years which has now been raised to 40, the official said.

The previous Congress government had raised the maximum age for government job aspirants to 35 from 30 earlier and the new BJP dispensation has continued with the policy by giving an extension of five more years.

The cabinet decided that the maximum age limit for job aspirants in reserved categories, inclusive of all relaxation, would not exceed 45 years, he said.

The relaxation would not be effective for appointment in the home (police) department but the government has decided that male candidates applying for the post of constables will be given relaxation of five years in upper age limit keeping in mind that their recruitment had been pending from previous years, the official said.

In 2018, recruitment for 2,259 vacant posts of constable was initiated by the state police. After about five years, an advertisement for recruitment of 5,967 vacant posts of constable was issued by the home department for which the process of filing online applications by candidates was underway.

The five-year relaxation will apply for male candidates for this police constable recruitment at par with their female counterparts who have already been give the benefit.

In another decision, the cabinet approved a proposal to constitute a sub-committee to take back purely political cases from the judiciary in the state, the official said.

The sub-committee will decide on withdrawing police cases filed against persons for staging political protests, the official said.

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