The government departments are struggling to fill the vacancies as the various rank lists of the exams conducted by the Public Service Commission are being delayed indefinitely. Currently, a valid rank list does not exist for appointment to significant posts like Lower Division Clerk, Last Grade Servant and Secretariat Assistant. The situation in the uniformed forces is no different. It’s been years since the rank lists for posts like sub-inspector, civil police officer, fireman, civil excise officer and woman civil excise officer have expired or got cancelled. Even though it’s been almost two years since the first notification for the post of fire woman has been published, the authorities have not been able to publish the rank list or make the appointments.
Meanwhile, the probability list of LDC and Last Grade Servant that are the main posts under the class ten-level public exam has been published. The main rank list would be published soon after completing the certificate verification. However, there is no clarity about the dates on which the rank lists for other posts would be published.
1000 plus vacancies for LDC, Last Grade
There are reportedly more than ten thousand unfilled posts in various departments. Around one thousand vacant positions are available in LDC and Last Grade posts alone. Even though the exact number of vacancies in the post of civil police officer is not known, there are reportedly more than one thousand vacancies in seven battalions. 121 vacancies for sub-inspector, 30 posts for armed police sub-inspector, 16 special branch assistants and 20 vacancies for administrative tribunal assistants have been reported, until now, to the PSC. Besides, there are hundreds of vacancies in other posts for which the rank lists have been delayed.
Group retirement; no lists for replacements
On 31 May, around fifteen thousand officials retired from various government and public sector departments. However, presently, appointments cannot be done to these posts that have fallen vacant. As the high-ranking officials retire, appointments have to be made proportionally to the posts of assistants in the entry cadre. But, it is unclear as on when these posts could be filled amid the indefinite delay in publishing the secretariat assistant rank list. Not even the probability list of the secretariat assistant examination that was held on 23 and 30 October 2021, along with the degree level public exam, has been published yet.
An additional test has been scheduled on 25 July for persons with disabilities for the posts of secretariat assistant and administrative tribunal assistant. The probability list for degree-level public exam would be published only after completing the valuation of this. It would then be followed by the main exam and certificate verification before publishing the rank list.
The appointment to the posts of assistants in the secretariat, PSC, Local Fund Audit and Advocate General’s Office too will be done from the rank list of secretariat assistants. In the present situation, it is highly unlikely that appointments to these posts would be completed this year itself.
Vacancies in KSEB
870 officials from Kerala State Electricity Board had retired on 31 May. It is the PSC that does the appointments to posts like Assistant Engineer (Electrical), Sub Engineer (Electrical) and Junior Assistant/ Cashier.
Except for the Junior Assistant/ Cashier, no rank lists exist for the other posts. 86 engineers and 59 assistant sub engineers had retired on 31 May. PSC rank lists should be published in order to replace them. It is unlikely that rank lists would be published for both posts any time soon.
Temporary appointments may go up
As PSC rank lists do not exist for most posts, the authorities would resort to temporary appointments. The criterion is to make temporary appointments via employment exchanges. The temporary staff would be laid off when the PSC publishes the rank list and permanently appoint the candidates who are included in the list. However, appointing the relatives and friends of influential people, in temporary posts has become rampant. Moreover, the temporary staffs are often not discharged even when permanent staffs are appointed. Timely publication of the rank list is the only solution to avoid discrepancies in temporary appointments.