Kollam: Nisha Balakrishnan from Chavara in Kollam, who failed to secure a government job after an official at the Urban Affairs Directorate in Thiruvananthapuram reported a vacancy to the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) exactly at midnight on the day the validity of her rank-list expired, is now inconsolable.
The PSC had refused to send Nisha an appointment order saying that the e-mail from Urban Affairs Directorate was received four seconds after midnight.
“What did the official gain by ruining my career? I had pleaded with him that I would be age over and had little chance to find a place on a PSC rank list again,” she says.
Nisha had cleared a PSC test and was placed 696 in the rank list for LD clerks in various departments in the Ernakulam district. The rank list came into effect on March 31, 2015, and was valid till March 31, 2018.
On March 28, 2018 - three days before the due date – an NJD vacancy* at Cochin Corporation was conveyed to the Urban Affairs Directorate in the state capital. When the particular e-mail arrived at the Urban Affairs Directorate, Nisha and some other candidates on the rank list were present there.
They begged Binuraj, the clerk at the Establishment Section in the Urban Affairs Directorate, to report the vacancy to PSC that day itself. “Will do. Will do,” replied Binuraj.
“I believed him and returned to Kollam. March 29 and 30 were public holidays. On March 31, I contacted Binuraj over the phone several times and pleaded with him to report the vacancy. On no occasion did he raise any objection. In fact, I never realized that he was planning some sort of cruel revenge. At the exact midnight hour, he sent an e-mail to the PSC officer at Ernakulam reporting the vacancy and it was received four seconds after 12 am. Citing the technicality of the rank-list lapsing at midnight, the PSC rejected my application and all my dreams of a secure job were dashed,” says a distraught Nisha.
According to Nisha, the only error she might have committed to be given a raw deal was participating in an indefinite hunger strike staged by job seekers in front of the Secretariat. “On most days, we went straight from the agitation venue to various government offices urging officials to report vacancies to PSC. As the highest number of vacancies normally occurs at the Urban Affairs Directorate, I visited the place at least a hundred times,” she says.
“Sometimes, the officials at these offices asked us, ‘have you come to Thiruvananthapuram to starve to death?’ But we told them, ‘we are not against anybody. We need a job to survive,’” adds Nisha.
At that time, Nisha had also met the then PSC member R Parvathy Devi, who is the wife of Minister V Sivankutty, and explained her plight. However, Nisha’s application was rejected citing objections at a PSC meeting.
*NJD denotes 'not joining duty'. An NJD vacancy arises when a candidate who received the appointment order fails to join duty.
