THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Candidates in the Public Service Commission (PSC) ranklist published in 2017 for assistant surgeon/casualty medical officer have urged the government to extend the validity of the list, which expires on Saturday.
As of now, only 1,439 of 1,972 persons in the main list have received advice memo and the rest have pinned their hopes on a petition submitted before the chief minister seeking an extension of the list’s validity. The supplementary list has over 700 names.
“Our request is genuine. In 2017, six months after our ranklist was published, the government raised the retirement age of government doctors from 56 to 60. Hence, there was no retirement vacancy during the period of the 2017 ranklist,” said a candidate not wishing to be named.
He said the candidates were also affected by the twin extension of the previous ranklist’s validity. Around 1,600 appointments were made from the previous list during the period of extension, while around 100 vacancies were kept pending owing to a court case on the list’s extension, he said.
Recently, 276 persons in the 2017 list received advice memo in the wake of Covid-19. Of them, around 100 people did not join as they had taken up service under the labour department. “The 276 persons have been given until June 30 to join. Since our list expires on June 27, we will lose this opportunity too,” said another candidate.