Telangana govt’s new age limit for jobs leaves aspirants upset

The Telangana government’s decision to fix the upper age limit for government recruitments at 44 years for one year has triggered mixed reactions among unemployed youth, with aspirants aged 45 and 46 expressing disappointment over exclusion from the revised policy

Hyderabad: The State government’s latest directive enhancing the upper age limits for government job recruitments has drawn a polarised reaction from the unemployed youth in Telangana. While the decision has provided vital relief to one section of aspirants, it has left remaining candidates feeling utterly betrayed.

Through the newly issued GO Ms No. 86, the State government set the maximum age limit to appear for general category government recruitments at 44 years for a period of one year.

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While the move increases the eligibility for thousands of job seekers, it also slashes the upper age limit by two years compared to the previous extension and also reduces the relaxation period in half.

After assuming power, the Congress government had issued GO Ms No. 30 in February 2024, enhancing the general category upper-age limit from 44 years to 46 years for a two-year window.

With the relaxation period getting lapsed in February of this year, the age ceiling technically reverted to the baseline of 34 years—triggering intense scrutiny over recent recruitment notifications.

While GO Ms No. 86 rescues candidates up to 44 years of age from that baseline drop, it actively locks out those aged 45 and 46, who had pinned their hopes on a full restoration of the previous policy.

The new relaxation is valid for only one year, unlike the two-year cushion period in the past. It also remains non-applicable to uniformed services like the Police, Excise, Fire, and Forest departments.

“Barring minor addendums, the government did not issue major new recruitment notifications during the previous relaxation window. We fail to understand the rationale behind reducing the upper age limit by two years now. We also fail to understand why the extension was restricted to just one year instead of two,” said A Janardhan, a leader of the Telangana Unemployed Youth Joint Action Committee (JAC).

The history of age relaxation in the State has been a prolonged bone of contention. In 2022, the previous BRS government had raised the maximum age limit by 10 years for direct recruitment across a two-year period. That decision lifted the general category ceiling from 34 to 44 years, while pushing limits for SC, ST, and BC candidates to 49 years, and Persons with Disabilities (PwD) to 54 years.

Although the subsequent policy built on this by stretching the limit to 46 years via GO 30, student groups pointed out that the State failed to timely notify a major chunk of vacancies, particularly in Group II, III, and IV services, before that order expired.

Unemployed youth in Telangana are now ramping up demands for immediate notifications as promised in past election manifestos. “There are massive vacancies across various departments. We want the government to immediately notify at least 1,000 Group I, 2,000 Group II, and 3,000 Group III vacancies. Given the prevailing heatwave conditions in the State, we have temporarily paused our physical protests, but we will hit the streets again very soon,” Janardhan said.