Thiruvananthapuram : It is government’s policy to fill all vacancies within the period of a given rank list. The appointing authorities and Public Service Commission(PSC) are taking all necessary steps to ensure this, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the Assembly on Thursday.
PSC was unable to conduct competitive exams in time owing to looming Covid conditions. That does not hamper reporting of vacancies or recommendations for appointment however. The time validity for rank lists between 05.02.2021 to 03.08.2021 have been extended up to 04.08.2021, said CM in a reply to the attention of PC Vishnunath.
Online system has been set working to report all vacancies punctually. Administrative Vigilance is also inspecting various offices to look up for any vacancy that might be lying unfilled. Over and above, a committee headed by Chief Secretary was formed on 13.02.2021 comprising Additional Chief Secretary to Finance and Additional Chief Secretary to Public Service Reforms Dept ensure that all vacancies get reported punctually.
In the previous tenure, the government created over 20,000 vacancies across various departments including that of Health and Police. PSC published 4223 rank lists in the period between 25.05.2016 and 19.05.2021 as against 3418 rank lists during UDF tenure earlier. The last LDF government recommended 1,61,361 appointments. And, although the earlier UDF govt. made 1,54,384 job recommendations, 4031 vacancies were filled under LDF rule.
In places where seniority disputes or lack of eligible candidates hamper regular promotions, the heads of various departments have been instructed to submit report thereof to the committee headed by the Chief Secretary. The government has also instructed that posts that may be hampered by those factors be temporarily lowered to PSC cadres and appointments be made via its rank lists.
It is govt policy to fill maximum vacancies via PSC recruitment. Beside leaving recruitments to PSC, a task force comprising various departmental secretaries was constituted on 20.10.20 to form special rules or recruitment frameworks in various public sector units, boards and corporations for the purpose of regularized appointments. Once the pandemic wanes, PSC will take steps to resume exams and interviews that got postponed owing to Covid conditions. And, the government will take all steps necessary to speed up PSC appointments, , said CM.
