KOCHI: Employees of the technical wing of the Motor Vehicles Department staged a one-day strike on Wednesday against the government decision to promote clerks to the post of Joint RTO by ignoring assistant motor vehicle inspectors (AMVIs) and motor vehicle inspectors (MVIs). The strike was led by the Kerala Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspectors’ Association and the Kerala Motor Vehicle Department Gazetted Officers’ Association.
Despite the Department’s Promotion Committee, the Pay Reform Commission and the Supreme Court Committee recommending that only technical candidates should be appointed to these posts, the government is considering clerical staff, the associations alleged. “AMVIs can be promoted to MVI after around ten years only if they pass the Accounts Test, MV Act and the CRPC. They are the ones who get the promotion as Joint RTO.
The same post is given to a person who joins as a clerk and becomes a senior superintendent. Of the 290 MVIs, only 60 have been promoted to Joint RTO while 31 out of 36 senior superintendents have been promoted to Joint RTO. As a result, when an AMVI with 20 years of service has to retire in the same post or in the MVI post, the clerk will be promoted to the post of Joint RTO and RTO after 20 years,” said an official with the MVD.