THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has turned a blind eye towards the Civil Police Officer (CPO) rank holders of the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC), who have been protesting for the past 31 days demanding the extension of the rank list which is set to expire next month.
They even held an eight-day hunger strike in front of the Secretariat to bring the government’s attention to the issue, which has put the careers of more than 10,000 aspirants at stake. Despite available vacancies, only 24% of rank holders have been appointed. Despite the state government notifying CPO vacancies in December 2019, the process faced delays owing to the pandemic. The preliminary examination was conducted in 2021, followed by the main exam in 2022 and the physical test at the end of the year. The rank list was finally released in 2023. However, only 3,383 candidates have been appointed from the rank list of 13,975 aspirants. The rank holders demanded the government make maximum appointments within a month or extend the list’s tenure.
“We have been waiting for five years, and there has been no change. The chief minister’s political secretary P Sasi’s statement that the agitators are all students and will leave after protesting for 2-3 days shows the government’s dismissive attitude towards our plight,” said a protester.
The state police chief had released a file seeking 18,000 police officers, which is still pending approval from the home ministry. “The DGP, in the file, sought CPOs to be appointed for managing police aid posts and Pocso files. However, the file is yet to get the government’s nod. Besides, only 390 were appointed in the SAP Battalion, whereas 1,400 candidates were appointed in the previous recruitment,” said Vignesh B C Nair, a protester.