(This is the sixth part of the Malayala Manorama series 'Government Jobs: Playbook of Nexus and Nepotism'. Read Part 1 here: Backdoor appointments cost the public money and the government its face. Part 2: In Kerala’s IT department, job offers come tailor-made for candidates. Part 3: New-age commissars rule Chief Minister’s Office. Part 4: Public sector management is family business in Kerala. Part 5: Nepotism runs from top to bottom)
The Kerala government wants to develop the Kerala Bank into the largest bank in the state. The institution has been witnessing exponential growth at a different scale – at a personal level.
A bank employee’s career graph has amazed her colleagues. The number of orders issued to place that person in various posts have been unprecedented, thanks to that person’s influence in a heavyweight in the government department.
The person was initially appointed as a clerk on contract basis in the bank. She was later appointed as an office assistant in a college that worked under the bank. Though she lost her job when the college was shut down, she made a dramatic re-entry as a member of the task force appointed in connection with the establishment of the Kerala Bank. She rubbed shoulders with the experts from the Reserve Bank of India and the Nabard. The monthly pay check was Rs 50,000.
The task force became defunct with the formation of the Kerala Bank but she was one of the top officers of the newly formed Kerala Bank. When the serial government orders in favour of her became the talk of the town, she was shifted to a training college under the bank with a salary of Rs 75,000. Finally, on the eve of the lockdown, she returned as an officer of the bank.
The same pattern was repeated in the case of a former SFI leader who was appointed to the Kerala State Cooperative Bank 13 years ago. The former student leader who is on deputation as a personal staff member of a minister is actively lobbying for the post of a deputy general manager in the Kerala Bank. The process is not so straightforward though.
An organisation structure released in last May elevated his designation equal to a deputy general manager. He is the only one in the bank to hold such a designation. The post which was below the manager earlier has been elevated on top of the manager and the senior manager. After the deputation, he can be assured of a top post.
If you are someone close to a minister, top bureaucrat or a senior party leader, you can forget about qualifications. You can expect to be appointed to a new post with a fat pay check. The same enthusiasm is lacking when it comes to helping contract employees with little connections even though they may be working as contract employees for decades.
A case in point is the Medical Services Corporation, where 16 posts were assigned to the Kerala Public Service Commission to fill recently. Yet 70 posts were retained with the corporation to fill at will, leaving the pharmacists, assistant supervisors, packers, workers and data entry operators who have been working for the corporation for 13 years to continue to worry about their job security.
This is pointer to the government’s attitude towards the ordinary workers even as high-profile posts are liberally created for the people close to power circles.
Even in the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), which is struggling to pay its workers, two posts were created for deputy general managers on contract basis. The rules of the corporation have no mention of posts such as deputy general managers for administration and accounts and operations but that has not stopped authorities from creating those posts.
Even before the new bosses entered, their jobs had been done by KSRTC employees. It remains to be seen what the new deputy general managers have to bring to the table to salvage the public transporter.
Dissent within the ranks
K M Aji has been a CPM member since he turned 16 years and he has a very uncomfortable question to ask to the party leadership. The former DYFI Kottayam district committee member and zonal secretary took to social media to expose the party’s role in the corruption related to the appointment of teachers to the Sri Krishna College in Guruvayur.
The fact that his uncle was a martyr for the party and he comes from a family of staunch party supporters lends weight to his arguments.
Aji criticised the appointment of the wife of a CPM Thrissur district committee member as an assistant professor in the college. His words prove that even party workers with high qualifications are ignored in the game of nepotism.
Aji said that he was not offered the job despite his high academic qualifications. He holds a PhD apart from M.Phil. He has a Kerala Archives fellowship and solid experience in teaching. He has published two books and more than 15 papers. He has attended national and international seminars.
Yet he was ignored in favour of a candidate who was 250th on the list in terms of academic qualifications. He even alleged that the successful candidate had produced fake certificates to ensure employment.
Aji said he had raised the issue with minister M M Mani and Kottayam district party chief V N Vasavan after meeting them personally. “I am not looking for any leniency or special consideration. That is not how the left parties work. Yet some people indulge in serious corruption in the name of the CPIM, denying justice to common people,” he wrote on social media.
The Kerala Kala Mandalam is not without its share of appointment scandals. The art school is led by a district committee member of the CPM in Thrissur. The Karshaka Sangham leader is the executive committee member of the Kala Mandalam, where back-door appointments are galore.
The offices of the vice chancellor and registrar are mostly filled with contract employees. At least 110 appointments have been done to these offices.
The vice chancellor’s personal assistant is someone who resigned as a junior superintendent in the Revenue Department in 2004. He works as the CPM’s marksman to control the administration of the prestigious art school in place of a private secretary, who is supposed to control recruitment to the school.
Most of the temporary positions are filled by the relatives of local CPM leaders. A retired officer of the Local Self-government Department has been appointed as the overseer.
(Reporting by Renji Kuriakose, Mahesh Guptan, V R Prathap, S V Rajesh, M R Harikumar, K P Safeena and Jikku Varghese Jacob)
