THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sacking of around 4,000 empanelled conductors by the KSRTC en masse has set off a blame game between the corporation and the PSC. While the PSC claims it conducted the exam based on the vacancy notification issued by the KSRTC, the latter says despite issuing a cancellation order the PSC went ahead with the examination.
In 2011 the KSRTC planned to buy new buses due to which it sent an interim order to the PSC regarding the vacancy of new posts. Due to some reasons, the move failed to come through, following which a letter was sent to the PSC asking that the examination be cancelled. Despite sounding out the PSC via the government channels it chose to ignore the notice and continued with the selection procedure, said Hena P N, KSRTC Deputy Law Officer.
As the PSC’s recruitment procedure is time-consuming, it usually conducts examination based on anticipated vacancy, which is a continuous process through which the exams are conducted for some posts, including those for LDCs, drivers and conductors so that it will be easy to post them whenever there is a vacancy.
“The administration has reported a vacancy based on which the PSC had conducted the examination for new candidates. Hence, despite the KSRTC altering its plan, the PSC could not stop the procedure,” said a top PSC officer.
The sudden retrenchment in the KSRTC was the result of the High Court Division Bench order to appoint 4,051 candidates advised by the PSC by removing the 3,872 empanelled conductors from the service. According to the PSC, the reserve conductor rank list was first published on May 9, 2013. Initially, 13,563 candidates were sent advice memo by the PSC. Appointment orders were issued by KSRTC for 9,512 candidates in various stages.
The last 4,051 were sent the advice memo on December 31, 2016. Since the KSRTC had not sent appointment orders for over two years after the candidates received the advice memo from PSC they approached the court.