The eyes of S Anu's mother welled up when she saw on TV the fiery protests being staged by candidates who made it to the PSC rank list for the post of Last-Grade Servant in the Kerala government service. They were seen threatening to immolate themselves by pouring kerosene as the arrival of offer letters, confirming their appointments, proved elusive. She could relate to their angst as she had lost her 28-year-old son on Thiruvonam day five months ago. Before committing suicide, the young man had written: "Unemployment is the cause of everything."
Political leaders flocked to the modest house of Anu's family at Karakonam in Thiruvananthapuram as protests were held against the government soon after the suicide. They promised a government job for Anu's brother and financial aid for his family, but it has not yet been fulfilled. His father Sukumaran Nair works in a tea shop to support the family.
Blame it on virus!
The timely appointments of many rank-holders, including Anu, were hampered because available vacancies in the government were not regularly or properly reported during the lockdowns necessitated by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus early last year. Meanwhile, several rank lists of candidates who had cleared the recruitment tests were nearing their expiry dates as no appointments could be made when interviews could not be held at the apt time or offer letters could not be despatched to rank-holders as government offices were under-staffed amid the prolonged shutdowns.
The PSC had requested the government that the validity of the rank-list should be extended. The government, however, did not heed the request.
The rank list for Civil Excise Officers, which included the name of Anu, expired by the time the candidate ranked 72 was appointed. Anu would not have ended his life had five more candidates from the list had been given appointments.
Vested interests at play
Even as candidates who have studied hard for years and made it to the rank lists still wait for a chance, the powers that be in the state are likely playing a devious game and promoting backdoor appointments. It is even suspected that timely appointments are not done deliberately and rank lists are released to hoodwink the eligible youths.
A parallel recruitment setup is likely in place to draft either party workers or people favoured by the ruling party. Such people don't have to give any exam or interview. All that they need is the acquaintance of someone influential in the leading political party.
Even departments and entities of the government get the message that appointments will be "fixed" and the officers there take the cue and sit on files stating vacancies that are be mandatorily reported.
As a result candidates like Anu, a postgraduate whose name figured on four PSC rank lists, struggle and feel disillusioned. Ironically, he had even encouraged local youths to take up government jobs!
The deserving felt cheated
Youth in their late 20s and in the 30s have been protesting in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram for several days. They are desperate for jobs, not merely to land a government job, as most of them face several odds back home.
The indefinite strike has been started by those on the Last Grade Servant rank list as they are upset with the fact that the government is making only temporary appointments even in newly created posts.
Of the 46,285 people on the list, only 5,524 have been appointed so far, but the rank list may expire in July. Even if the government decides to extend the validity of the existing lists till August, the candidates will get a benefit of only one month.
Of the 36,783 candidates on the LD clerk rank list, only 8,314 have got the appointment recommendation so far. This figure is based on the number of people who figure on multiple lists — they may have received multiple appointment recommendations — and the number of vacancies created due to transfers. So, the actual number of people who got a job would not be even 6,000.
The protesters had put forward three major demands. One, expedite the creation of new posts. Two, extend the rank lists by another six months. Three, create most last-grade posts by revising the working hours of existing employees.
The purpose of PSC itself takes a beating
The Public Service Commission or PSC is the official state recruiter, but towards the fag end of their tenures it is a common practice of all governments to safeguard the interests of their relatives and those close to politicians by employing them and making their appointments permanent. Such recruitments are done bypassing the PSC. But the current LDF government has been trying to confirm an unprecedented number of temporary employees in the government service and it has been going about with the process blatantly. By mid-February the number of temporary staff regularised by it touched 1,159 since it commenced the process four months ago.
The government has defended the attempt to allot permanent jobs stating that such appointments never come under the ambit of the PSC.
The government does it despite objection from department secretaries, the finance ministry and the law ministry. It started the process of mass regularisation of people on temporary service with 114 employees of the C-DIT. This was done by disregarding the opinion of the Additional Secretary of the IT Department who expressed his disagreement with the government move saying it would set a bad precedent.
Cabinet meetings last month had approved the regularisation of employees in the Keltron and the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (Kila). More such approvals are likely soon.
Such is the duplicity of the government that mostly people close to politicians and bureaucrats benefit from ‘compassionate appointments' - a scheme to provide employment assistance to the dependents of government employees who die while in service.
Government's stand
The government's stand is that it had made appointments to more posts than is usually possible. The Chief Minister had earlier said there were 5,28,231 (five lakh twenty eight thousand two hundred and thirty one) government employees in Kerala. "At the most, the government can recruit 25,000 people a year," he said.
But according to him, the LDF government could appoint more than what it could in the last five years. He said 1,57,911 candidates were appointed through the PSC in the last five years, which on an average is more than 31,000 appointments a year.
The CPM state secretary A Vijayaraghavan, too, said the agitators were asking too much of the LDF government. "We can appoint people in existing and possible vacancies. But to ask for jobs in non-existent posts is legally untenable," he said on Monday.
The favourites' list
The number of employees who have been regularised in various government institutions of late is listed out here. They were appointed from the list submitted by various institutions to the government. The lists were apparently vetted by trade union leaders and influential people likely pocketed a good amount from the candidates short-listed for direct appointments.
C-DIT: A Cabinet meeting had regularised the case of 114 temporary employees. The government is now planning to give direct appointments to about 30 persons who are close to the party by making use of special rules.
Kerala Medical Services Corporation: 663 persons.
Schools: The move to regularise 179 temporary resource teachers is in the final stages. These are teachers who teach children with disabilities.
Kerala State Chalachitra Academy: Six persons occupying various posts here for more than 10 years are set to be confirmed.
Kerala Bank: A move to regularise over 1,000 temporary employees citing obstruction to recruitment of people through the PSC rank lists is on, though the Kerala High Court has imposed a stay. Of these, 880 will be recruited to the post of collection agent.
Literacy Mission: A list has been prepared to regularise 83 people. It is suspected 50 of these posts are non-existent.
State Institute of Children's Literature: A proposal to regularise five contract employees is under consideration. The list includes people who have not completed 10 years of service and those whose service got disrupted.
Social Security Mission: The executive director has written a letter stating that 17 employees should be regularised.
State Council for Open and Lifelong Education (SCOLE KERALA): The chief minister's office has a file seeking regularisation of 55 people. The chief minister has sought explanation on service breaks.
Kerala Health Research and Welfare Society (KHRWS): The health department has got a list of 180 people to be regularised. The Cabinet approval is awaited.
Kerala State Poultry Development Corporation (Kepco): A list of 60 people working in different districts who are to be regularised has been sent to the Chief Minister's Office by the department.
Kerala Livestock Development Board: The file for regularisation of seven people has reached the Finance Department.
Human Rights Commission: The law department received a recommendation to regularise three drivers. It, however, returned the file saying there were legal hurdles to acting on the recommendations.
Matsyafed: 90 employees. As two of these posts have yet not been approved, the MD has recommended that supernumerary posts be created to regularised employees in these posts.
Kerafed: 70 people. Of these, only seven have completed 10 years of service. 54 people on the list are temporary employees who have completed only three years of service. Nine employees have 3–10 years of service. 25 people on the list for regularisation were appointed directly by the MD.
Forest Industries Travancore (FIT): 10. Of these, 3 have been regularised. The remaining include the son of a relative of the CPM area secretary.
The Kannur University has primarily approved the regularisation applications of 10 security personnel, four drivers and four part-time sweepers and has decided to seek legal advice of the Syndicate Standing Council about the proposed appointments.
Vyloppalli Samskrithi Bhavan,Thiruvananthapuram: Librarian, cashier-cum-clerk and full-time sweeper (the proposal will be considered in the next Cabinet meeting).
KMML, Kollam: Junior Khalasi - 8, PRO - 1, Marketing Officer - 1
The 'parallel recruitment lobby' provides jobs by subverting norms and thereby making the PSC irrelevant. On whose behalf are these subversions carried out? What are the devious ways by which even court orders are ignored? More about this tomorrow.
Contributed by: Renji Kuriakose, Jayan Menon, Jayachandran Ilankath, MR Harikumar, VR Pratap, Joji Simon and KP Safina. Compiled by: Nidheesh Chandran
