Telangana relaxes upper age limit for jobs in police department

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has relaxed the upper age limit for police job aspirants by three years in recruitment exams. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao gave his nod to this effect on Sunday.

Mr Rao on Saturday approved filling of over 9,000 vacancies in Police and Fire departments by conducting recruitment exams.

The new age-relaxation norms will come into force with these exams, set to be conducted soon. This is the biggest police recruitment drive being taken up in Telangana in the past 12 years.

The upper age limit for police constable posts for general category candidates has been raised from 22 years to 25 years and for reserved category candidates (SCs, STs, BCs) from 27 years to 30 years.

The upper age limit for sub-inspectors has also been raised by three years. For SI posts, the upper age limit for general category candidates has been increased from 25 years to 28 years and for reserved category candidates from 30 years to 33 years.

For non-uniform jobs, the Telangana government had earlier raised the upper age limit by 10 years, from 34 years to 44 years, for general category candidates and an additional five years for reserved quota candidates.

With this, similar demands had cropped up from police job aspirants. But the police department had opposed raising the age-limit since these are uniform-jobs, which need young candidates who are physically fit. The government later appointed a Cabinet sub-committee to study the issue and make recommendations on the age relaxation.

The committee had recommended a five-year age relaxation and submitted a report to the CM last month. However, the police department objected to the five-year relaxation. After considering the pros and cons, Mr Rao adopted a middle path and went for the three-year relaxation.

The CM has also directed officials to strengthen the police communication department. After bifurcation, TS was allotted 335 constable posts in the communication department but only three constables are currently working at present with 332 posts lying vacant. The CM has asked officials to fill these 332 vacancies at one go.