Thiruvananthapuram: The validity of rank lists for recruitment to various posts in the Kerala government will be extended by six months. The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to recommend this to the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC).
The order in this regard will be applicable for all rank lists set to expire during the period of February 3 to August 3, 2021. This would benefit several candidates in 473 rank lists.
Rank lists of Lower-Division Clerk (LDC) for 14 districts, last-grade staff, staff nurse, and driver in various departments are among those to be extended. Candidates in these lists would be drafted against vacancies due to retirements in April, May, June, and July. The validity of the LDC rank list was set to expire on April 1.
The PSC meeting to be held on Friday or February 8 will consider the Cabinet's recommendation. The recommendation is likely to be accepted.
Agitation successful
Several candidates have been demanding the extension of the validity and even agitations were going on recently.
The PSC recruitments came to a standstill last year owing to lockdowns announced to contain the COVID-19. As a result, several rank lists of candidates who had cleared the tests held earlier by the public recruiter are set to expire as they are time-bound. Several job-seekers have been staging protests of late seeking to extend the validity of PSC rank lists in which their names appear. On Friday, a large number of them had protested at the Secretariat in the Kerala capital, seeking to extend the validity of the recruitment rank list by six months.
The organisers of the agitation had threatened to launch strong protests if the validity was not extended during the next meet of the state Council of Ministers. The state committee of the Federation of Various PSC Rank Holders' Association was spearheading the candidates' protest.
Revised salary from April 1: Staff to get all benefits
The Cabinet has also decided to disburse the revised salary, recommended by the Pay Revision Commission for the government employees, from April 1.
All benefits, including a maximum 10 per cent house rent allowance, would be given from April 1 onwards (salary for March). An order in this regard would be issued within two days.
Also, an order is likely to be issued on giving arrears of Dearness Allowance (DA) from July 1, 2019, (4 per cent) and January 1, 2020, (3 per cent). Hence, the employees would be eligible for 7 per cent DA along with the new basic salary to be disbursed from April 1.
The DA arrears are likely to be merged with the PF. The order is likely to be issued this week. The Cabinet that will meet on February 10 will take a call on pension revisions.
Three shifts for hospitals with 100+ beds
The labour department has issued an order, fixing three shifts for staff at hospitals with more than 100 beds. As per this, the staff will work eight hours a day, and 48 hours in a week. If the working time exceeds 208 hours in a month, staff should be given overtime allowance. If there are no transportation facilities, the hospitals should provide amenities so that the employees can take rest.
Special pay scale in health department
The special pay scale, recommended by the Pay Commission, would be implemented now itself only in the health department, which has been in the forefront of the COVID-19 battle. A committee, comprising Additional Chief Secretary (Finance), Additional Chief Secretary (Personnel & Administrative Reforms) and Principal Secretary (General Administration) has been tasked to study about the special scales for other departments and submit recommendations.
The committee will also look into the Pay Commission's other recommendations on scales and career advancement schemes.
PSC submits report to Governor
Meanwhile, PSC chairman M K Sakeer has submitted the 2019-20 annual report of the PSC to Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan.
As per the report after 2011 the most number of candidates were given advice memos for appointment in 2016-17 and 2019-20. A total of 3,4106 people received advice memos in 2019-20. Maximum number of candidates from the rank lists were given advice memos during this period.
The selection rules of the Kerala Administrative Service were amended and selection norms of Kerala Administrative Tribunal were formulated during 2019-20. Also, the notification for the post of KAS officer (junior time scale) trainee was issued and the preliminary test was held. And, advice memos were given for posts, including the assistant surgeon in the health department, in a short time during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.
