Meghalaya Cabinet approves age condonation to over 115 overaged candidates under Textiles dept

The State Cabinet on Tuesday approved the condonation of age for over 115 overaged candidates under the department of Textiles.

Addressing the media, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said out of 196, there were about 115 candidates who would not be able to appear for the exams because they would be overaged.

“Hence, as a one time measure only for this specific case because of the special circumstances that is there that the Cabinet has decided and agreed to condone the age for the overage candidates for the department of Textiles to appear for the exams,” he said.

He however maintained, “There is no guarantee that they will get the job but the selection process will happen and they will be allowed to appear and once that happens it will all be based on merit.”

The CM said that since 2015 there have not been any appointments or any kind of examinations held in the department of Textiles. In fact, many people were supported in terms of a stipend by the government of Meghalaya and candidates, who cleared those particular courses, their appointments were due in the sense that they were asking for direct appointments to be made.

“Again (this) require some detailed assessments to be made and in the process from 2015 none of the individuals were appointed and no recruitment process also take place because of certain clarity that was required in that point in time and hence the issue has been pending for a very long time and because of that now we have finally come to a conclusion where we have decided where we will be holding exams and in this examination these different candidates can apply and so therefore all candidates who have gone to this institute can now appear for the examination and the selection process that will be conducted and based on the selection process appointments will be given,” he said.

When asked, the chief minister said that regularising them straight away is not an option for the government because the selection process has to be there.

“It should have been done in 2015. I am not here to blame anybody but because the process was delayed and the recruitment process did not take place at that time and hence many people became overage. Hence, it was a very complicated issue that was there in front of us but yes you are right from that aspect but then procedures have to be followed and hence we try to make it very inclusive as possible but it will not be possible for us to directly regularise the existing employees because the selection process was not done in that manner,” he said.