Thiruvananthapuram: The Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation has given scant regard to the Kerala Government's directive to fill vacancies through the Employment Exchange and gone ahead with procedures for making the controversial appointments to 295 temporary posts in the health institutions under it.
The Corporation governing body didn’t report a single vacancy to the Employment exchange. Instead, it convened personal interviews of the candidates from November 21 to 28, though the same couldn’t be held due to the stiff protest from the Opposition.
Local Self-Government Minister M B Rajesh had directed to report the vacancies to Employment Exchange soon after the controversial letter purportedly written by Mayor Arya Rajendran addressing CPM district Secretary Anavoor Nagappan, seeking a party list of candidates for appointment to the 295 posts, came out and turned a controversy.
However, the Corporation neglected the same and went ahead with the appointments in its own capacity, sources said.
The notification for the vacancies in the People’s Planning department was issued on October 31 and November 16 was the last date for application. The Letter controversy took place in between, and despite that, the governing body went ahead with the appointments by scheduling the interviews from November 21. The candidates who turned up for the interviews returned without attending the same, following the protest of opposition parties.
The Opposition alleged that a lobby inside the Corporation took money from the candidates for the appointments and hence the refusal to report the vacancies to the Employment Exchange.
Meanwhile, the Corporation office informed there are certain technical issues in reporting the vacancies to the Employment Exchange and that a letter was handed over to the director to remove the hurdles.
The appointments were invited to the posts of doctors, public health specialists, staff nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians, sweepers, part-time sweepers, and optometrists in the primary health center, urban primary health centre, social health centres, and family health centres.