Kollam: The statement of Minister M.B. Rajesh, made in an attempt to whitewash the officials who scuttled the job opportunity of a woman candidate by reporting vacancies at 12 midnight on the day of expiry of the rank list, has been disproved.
“Manorama” has obtained records proving that candidates, including Nisha Balakrishnan, lost their job opportunities owing to an act of “treachery” by officials of the Urban Affairs Directorate in Thiruvananthapuram.
Denial of appointment was planned: more evidence unearthed
The Minister came forward to protect the officials who are sympathisers of the party, after Manorama exposed the incident where Nisha Balakrishnan, a native of Chavara, who had been on the rank list of Ernakulam district, lost her job opportunity. The rank list was to expire on March 31, 2018.
The vacancy to which Nisha was to be appointed was reported from the office of the Urban Affairs Directorate at 12 midnight on March 31. The email was received at the Public Service Commission (PSC) office in Ernakulam at 12.04 a.m.
The Minister’s argument, by putting the blame on the PSC, was that emails reporting the vacancies were sent from the office of the Urban Affairs Directorate to the PSC offices in Kannur and Ernakulam districts at 12 midnight and that the candidate in Kannur was given appointment while Nisha was not appointed by the PSC. The email was received at the Kannur PSC office one second past midnight. The appointment to this vacancy was made not from the expired rank list as the Minister claimed. Records obtained through a Right to Information petition make it clear that it was done from the list that came into effect from April 2, 2018.
When the vacancy was reported at midnight, one candidate in Kannur too lost the job opportunity. That candidate, however, has not yet come out in the open with the issue.
The responsibility to protect the interests of those who lost their job opportunities, including the visually challenged P.S. Saiju of Udayamperoor, owing to the late reporting of the vacancies at midnight, lies with the government.
Minster’s argument disproved earlier
Minister M.B. Rajesh had come out with a refutation of the charge that the candidates, including Nisha Balakrishnan, were denied the job opportunities as an act of retaliation for their staging a protest in front of the Secretariat.
After photographs of the candidates, including Nisha, taking part in the protest came out in the open, the Minister was put in a spot.