Lucknow: Facing protests from job aspirants from general category who were waiting for the recruitment to begin for the past five years, the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government has decided to give an age relaxation of three years for all candidates applying for the posts of police constables in Uttar Pradesh.
The previous such recruitment took place in November 2018, with the Covid pandemic being cited as one of the reasons for the break in recruitments in the state.
On Saturday, the government advertised vacancies for 60,244 posts of constables, including 24,102 for general category, 6,024 for the economically weaker sections (EWS), 16,264 for OBC, 12,650 for SC and 1,204 posts for ST.
While the UP government’s notification — a copy of which is with ThePrint — set the age limit above 18 years and below 22 years as on 1 July for male applicants from the general category, it was above 18 years and less than 25 years for female candidates. OBC, SC, ST applicants would get exemption from the age limit, it added.
The advertisement led to a heartburn among the youth from the general category, lakhs of whom in India’s most populous state had prepared for the police recruitment to begin. Hundreds of angry youth gathered at Lucknow’s Eco Garden and agitated against the age limit prescribed for the general category.
With the Lok Sabha polls just five months away and requests coming from across the political spectrum, the UP government Tuesday granted a three-year relaxation in the upper age limit for all candidates. In a statement, the government asserted that it was committed towards the interests and bright future of the youth.
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What candidates & leaders said
“When other states like Rajasthan, MP, Bihar and Jharkhand have given age relaxation, what is the problem in UP? When the last recruitment took place in 2018, most of the applicants were underage, now when the government is filling vacancies five years later, what is our fault?” asked Ramesh Singh, one of the applicants who arrived from Amroha.
“For five years, there was no recruitment by the UP Police for constable posts. We have been preparing for the past five years and we have become overage. What is our fault? If the government doesn’t issue notifications for years, youth will continue to cross the age limit. Covid stagnated many things. Recruitments had stopped,” said Deepak, a native of Ballia.
As the opposition attacked the BJP government and trends like ‘Justice for UP upper caste applicants’, ‘UP Swarn MLA goonge hain (UP upper caste MLAs are deaf)’ trended on social media, BJP legislators from western Uttar Pradesh, too, sided with the protesting applicants.
Samajwadi Party chief and Leader of Opposition Akhilesh Yadav tweeted Sunday in solidarity of the “unemployed youth”.
बेरोज़गार युवाओं और विपक्ष के दबाव से आख़िरकार उप्र में कई सालों के बाद पुलिस भर्ती निकली है। इस बीच कई युवा भर्ती का इंतज़ार करते-करते नौकरी पाने की उम्र पार कर गये, इसीलिए भाजपा सरकार इस भर्ती में अभ्यर्थियों को कम-से-कम 3-4 साल की छूट दे। pic.twitter.com/CH13QJvx66
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) December 24, 2023
Hundreds of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) workers protested in Lucknow, alleging that the Yogi Adityanath government wanted to snatch the rights of the youth.
लखनऊ में जारी पुलिस भर्ती में आयु सीमा को छूट को लेकर धरना प्रदर्शन।
योगी जी आपकी पुलिस युवाओं का हक छीनना चाहती है। यह हम होने नहीं देंगे। #उत्तर_प्रदेश_पुलिस_भर्ती #UPPOLICENEWVACANCY #Age_limit_Relaxation #RLD pic.twitter.com/AA6v1RyQXd
— Rashtriya Lok Dal (@RLDparty) December 26, 2023
RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary wrote to the CM Sunday highlighting that the last recruitment of police constable took place on 16 November, 2018.
“Lakhs of youth from the state have become overage due to no recruitment happening in five years. In view of this fact, the demand of lakhs of youths for age relaxation in the current recruitment is absolutely genuine and fair,” Chaudhary wrote, urging the CM to sympathetically consider the demand of the youth and to provide age relaxation.
RLD MLA Persann Kumar, too, wrote to the CM requesting him to relax the upper age limit of the applicants by three years.
Like their rivals, several BJP leaders from western UP reached out to the chief minister with the same request. While former BJP MLA Sangeet Som called for the relaxation of the age limit by five years keeping in view the interests of the general category, Union minister Sanjeev Balyan said it should be three years.
Anupshahr MLA Sanjay Sharma wrote Monday requesting the CM to relax the upper age limit for the general and EWS categories by two-three years.
On Tuesday, Sharma and Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh met the CM at his residence in Lucknow and requested him to grant age relaxation to the applicants from general category.
“This is a very genuine demand of the youth who have been preparing for the recruitment for the past five years. During the Covid pandemic, no recruitment could take place and lakhs of youth were rendered overage as they kept waiting for the recruitment to begin. The CM has agreed to the demand and assured that the age limit will be relaxed,” Singh told ThePrint.
After the government considered the appeals for age relaxation, the RLD chief welcomed the decision saying it was a “birthday gift” (27 December is Jayant’s birthday). Yogi had taken the right decision, he said, adding that it was because RLD raised the demand effectively and its workers forced the government to agree to them.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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