THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 11th Kerala Pay Revision Commission, headed by retired IAS officer K Mohandas, has recommended a slew of suggestions to the state government to improve the standard of governance and efficiency of its employees including raising the retirement age to 57 from 56 and introducing a five-day week.
The final report handed over to the Chief Minister has suggested changing the working hours of government employees from the current 10 am to 5 pm to 9.30 am to 5.30 pm in order to facilitate the introduction of a five-day week system. The annual holidays should be restricted to 12 and regional level holidays could be allowed only if the celebrations would affect the normal flow of life of people in the region. Similarly, it has also suggested reducing the number of earned leaves to 30. Every department should identify the work to be carried out from home and this should be awarded to officials on work from home basis on proper rotation.
Appointments in government aided colleges and schools should be based on merit. The Kerala Recruitment Board for Private School and Colleges should take steps to make it a transparent process. Vacancies should be published in two leading Malayalam newspapers. The recruiting panel should have representatives of the management and university apart from government representatives. The audios and videos of the interviews should be recorded and an ombudsman in the rank of a retired judge from the High Court or Supreme Court should be appointed to look into grievances or complaints, the panel said.
“The Commission is aiming to end the irregularities in the appointments in the aided sector. Further, the decision to raise the retirement age was suggested taking note of the increase in the living span of the people. The Commission also took note of the financial situation of the state government and digitising the government jobs is one of the main priorities, through which the people can avail government services from their houses,” Mohandas told the media.
Other important suggestions
- Full pension has to be given to the families of those who die in harness
- State should ensure 20 per cent of the reservation meant for the OBC and Scheduled categories goes to the economically weaker sections in these categories
- Ensure efficiency of employees and courteous behaviour to customers
- PSC recruitment should be made efficient and it should complete fast-track appointments at the earliest. The number of PSC members should also be scaled down as part of financial austerity measures.
- The employees' code of conduct should be revised taking note of the current social developments
- Compassionate appointments should be stopped fully. Instead of giving jobs to a dependent of a family, cash compensations and benefits have to be given to them as compassionate appointments affect the quality of civil service