Jobless get a raw deal
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As protests rage across state over backdoor appointments and denial of jobs to PSC rank-holders, TNIE takes a look at how the present LDF govt has fared in providing govt employment and how parties have been using various depts and PSUs to fill them with their own people
The state has been witnessing a slew of protests, sometimes violent, by PSC rank-holders in the capital city and towns in the state against regularisation of contractual employees and backdoor appointments by the LDF government these days.
It was not long ago that the LDF government had cancelled the regularisation of services of 40 employees at Kerala House in New Delhi, stating that it had violated the Supreme Court’s ruling. The services of these contractual employees were regularised by the previous UDF government on September 19, 2015.
However, at the fag end of its tenure, the present LDF government is throwing all rules and court verdicts to the winds to regularise the contractual staff who have completed 10 years of service citing humanitarian grounds.
Various departments, PSUs and quasi-government bodies and other autonomous organisations have been employing people on contract for long at the cost of eligible candidates. As expected, proposals to regularise over 3,000 contract staff were before the state government and it has regularised the services of some on the lists while the other lists would be considered by the cabinet n the coming weeks.
As the government was making last-minute preparations to regularise the contract staff, the Secretariat premises witnessed dramatic scenes on Monday when a last-grade PSC rank-holder and the husband of another rank-holder poured kerosene on them and threatened to immolate themselves, bringing the issue of backdoor appointments to the fore once again. The last grade servant candidates who found place in the 2018 PSC rank list ask what they will do if the government continues to go ahead with regularising contractual staff.
Praveen Kumar, office-bearer of the LG Servants Rank Holders Association (various departments), said, “As many as 46,285 candidates are in the rank list published on June 30, 2018. So far, the PSC has issued advice memos to 5,524 candidates, whereas 11,395 advice memos were issued during 2015-18 and 12,959 advice memos during 2012-15.
When there is around 50 per cent drop in average advice memos issued by the PSC during 2018-21 period, various departments, autonomous bodies, PSUs and other government institutions are gearing up to regularise over 3,000 contractual employees.”
Though the state government has extended the rank list’s validity for six more months, it is hard to believe that 25 per cent of the candidates in the list would get appointment. According to PSC civil police officer rank-holders, their list was stayed for about four months after the Crime Branch registered a case against SFI activists who allegedly used phones and smartwatches to commit malpractices in the exam. Though the state government has extended the validity of about 490 rank lists during its tenure so far, the CPO rank list’s term has not been extended, they claim.
A senior PSC officer, on condition of anonymity, said, “Hardly around 50 public sector companies report their vacancies to the PSC. The PSC has no audit or vigilance wing to take penal action against the reluctant department heads.”“It’s an open secret that political parties in power would appoint the family members of their rank and file or people very close to them who are later regularised in a phased manner by both fronts in Kerala. The only difference is in the number of such staff regularised in their term,” he said.
Role of PSC in govt recruitments
60lakh candidates attend PSC exams annually
Hardly around 50 public sector units or bodies report vacancies to the PSC. Rest of the boards, corporations and other public sector companies used to appoint staff on their own
It Issues an average of 25,000-40,000 advice memos annually. (It will vary if there are no exams for posts like LD clerk or last grade servant in a year)
There are over 1,000 govt-controlled or govt-funded institutions including those in public sector
These posts will later be regularised by the respective government in power
Recent proposal to regularise contract staff
Kerala Bank: 1,850 (880 collection agents, 289 security men, 140 clerks, 71 night watchmen, 70 sweeper posts ,Single-teacher schools: 300 ,C-DIT: 114 , Matsyafed: 90 ,Contract watchers in Forest Dept: 110 , Kerafed: 70, State Council for Open and Lifelong Education: 55,TVM RCC: 54 , Kerala Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board: 50 , Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority: 44 , Horticorp: 34 , Women’s Development Corporation: 29 , Kerala Automobiles: 14 , Kerala Remote Sensing: 12 , State Institute of Children’s Literature: 07 , Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Company: 04