The recent advertisement to recruit 877 Assistant Professors by the State Public Service Commission has perturbed large number of aspirants as the advertisement mentions an upper age limit of 42 years for these posts. Their confusion is understandable as the State Administration had issued a Government Order (GO) last month mentioning that the norms of University Grants Commission (UGC) would be followed for recruitment of faculty positions in the colleges of the State. As per the UGC guidelines there is no upper age limit for recruitment of faculty positions in universities.
The GO regarding age in the recruitment of faculty positions was released on July 17 , 2017 and the recruitment advertisement of state public service commission was released on August 04, 2017. “ It clearly shows lack of coordination between different departments of the state government and state public service commission. Whatever is the reason for this miscommunication, it has dashed hopes of thousands of qualified candidates like me. The state government should intervene and ensure that the GO is followed in letter and spirit,” said Anju Rawat, a resident of Defence Colony. It is worth mentioning that the upper age limit for assistant professor in different states is different.
Senior BJP leader Ravinder Jugran said that he has met the additional chief Secretary Ranvir Singh and apprised him of the confusion on the matter of age. He said that the ACS has assured that the issue would be sorted out soon. Jugran said that amendment in the Higher education services guidelines is needed to be done. He suggested that the government should either re advertise these posts or release an amendment regarding age for the ongoing recruitment drive.
When contacted the Higher Education Director BC Malkani said that the department has not received any GO pertaining to the age for selection in the posts of assistant Professors.
On the requisition of the higher education department, the state public service commission recently released the recruitment advertisement for filling 877 posts of assistant professors in 31 subjects. It has sought online applications for recruitment in the above mentioned posts of assistant professors. The last date to submit online application form is August 24 and the last date depositing the fees is August 28. The service commission would adopt a process of interviews for selection of candidates. However in case of number of candidates exceeding a certain limit the service commission would hold screening examinations in some subjects. After holding the screening tests the interviews would be held to select the candidates.