THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Job aspirants on the PSC rank list for the last grade servant (LGS) post, who had made it to the headlines with their protest in front of the Secretariat demanding immediate appointments, have decided to resume their agitation after the assembly elections as the state government has failed to issue the order before March 31 as promised.
In February, the job aspirants called off their 34-day protest as well as the seven-day hunger strike after their representatives held talks with A K Balan in which the law minister agreed to regularise the working hours of night watchmen to eight hours. This way, more appointments could be made from the existing LGS rank list.
They alleged that the minister had assured them that the government order on regularising the working hours of night watchmen would be issued before March 31. Since the model code of conduct was in force in March, the minister had even promised that the government would request the Election Commission of India for an exemption for issuing the GO.
However, the government neither requested the EC for the exemption nor issued the GO, they said. “We feel cheated. When we contacted the minister’s private secretary, he told us that the government would consider issuing the GO after the elections. Later, when we contacted a senior official in the Secretariat, we came to know that the government has not taken even a single step in this direction,” one of them said on condition of anonymity.
Hence, we will resume our protest soon after the elections. We have not decided on a particular date. We will go to the capital city after checking the availability of all aspirants on the LGS rank list, he said. Meanwhile, it is learnt that the job aspirants who had staged protests in the capital are divided on voting for or against LDF candidates.
The civil police officer post aspirants have already made it clear that they would vote against the LDF for ignoring their demand, while some of the others who are awaiting appointment letters have said they would vote for the ruling front. From January 26 when the LGS post aspirants started their indefinite protest, their demand was that night watchmen’s working hours should be limited to eight hours. They had alleged that the night watchmen in certain departments were working for 20 hours or more, which had hampered their prospects.
The state government had earlier said there were not enough vacancies to give placements to all aspirants figuring on the PSC rank lists as most of the protestors had low ranks. The protesters had cited the government making back-door appointments, nepotism and making temporary employees permanent for the fewer available vacancies.
LAYA HURT BY HATE CAMPAIGN, SAYS SHE HASN’T GOT ANY JOB
T’Puram: Laya Rajesh, the face of the protest by last grade servant post aspirants figuring on the PSC rank list in front of the Secretariat, said when she returned home at Olari in Thrissur after 34 days in March, local residents and her relatives congratulated her for getting the much-awaited government job. However, she said she and other protestors are yet to get a job. She said she is being targeted on social media. “I am confined to my home.
A campaign is going on against me that I have already got a job in Kerala Bank. Unfortunately, even some people who had protested along with me believe that I had got money from the state government. This has hurt me more. I am in a dilemma. The future is looking bleak as the state government has given scant regard even to the directive of the State Human Rights Commission to limit the work hours of the night watchmen to eight hours,” Laya, who was in tears, told TNIE.