A major political confrontation has erupted in Jammu and Kashmir over the crucial issue of age relaxation for the Union Territory's civil services examination, with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha trading serious allegations. The public spat has thrown the future of thousands of aspirants into uncertainty, with the preliminary exam scheduled for December 7.
The Core of the Controversy
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah directly accused the Lieutenant Governor's administration, operating from Lok Bhavan, of deliberately stalling a vital file concerning age relaxation for candidates. Abdullah stated that this provision had been granted multiple times in the past and the current delay has created immense anxiety among aspirants. He urged the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) to postpone the Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination, also citing travel disruptions caused by ongoing airline chaos as an additional reason.
The controversy is unfolding against a backdrop of student protests demanding an increase in the age limit. Currently, J&K caps the age for the open category at 32 years and for reserved categories at 37 years. Aspirants point out that states like Uttarakhand and Haryana allow candidates up to 42 years, while Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan have set the limit at 40 years.
Conflicting Narratives from the Two Offices
The Lieutenant Governor's office issued a sharp rebuttal, calling the claims "misleading." In an official statement, it clarified that the age relaxation file was received on December 2 and was returned the very same day. The query raised was whether it was "logistically possible" to alter the eligibility criteria so close to the examination date. The statement emphasized that despite a lapse of four days, Lok Bhavan had not received any response to its query. "I fully sympathise with young aspirants," the LG's office stated, while underlining that the JKPSC had published the exam advertisement on August 22 and notified December 7 as the exam date on October 6.
National Conference spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq had earlier claimed that the Chief Minister had already approved the proposal and forwarded it to the LG on December 2. Reacting to the LG's statement, Sadiq argued that if the file was cleared by the CM, there was "absolutely no reason for any further queries."
Political Reactions and Aspirants' Plight
Other political parties were quick to weigh in, criticizing the administrative impasse. Peoples Conference chief Sajad Lone called it a "classical case of passing the buck at the cost of young aspirants." The Congress party urged both the LG and the CM to resolve the standoff without further delay. PDP president Mehbooba Mufti described the situation as a clear case of "passing of responsibility."
With merely five days left for the examination, thousands of candidates find themselves trapped in a frustrating limbo. They are caught between a stalled administrative decision and the very real risk of missing what is widely considered a once-in-a-year opportunity. The political blame game has done little to assuage their fears, leaving the future of many hanging in the balance as the exam date looms large.
