How Kerala is setting up to prompt reporting of vacancies to PSC

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 11: The Cabinet has come up with a set of steps, including setting up of a two-member committee headed by the Chief Secretary, to ensure that vacancies in government departments and institutions are reported promptly to the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC).

On the rank list, the PSC includes candidates up to five times the vacancies reported and 80 per cent do not get appointments. The government can only ensure posting to those in the rank list by reporting vacancies promptly to the PSC, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday after the Cabinet meeting.

Speaking to reporters, CM Pinarayi Vijayan said that stern steps would be taken against appointing authorities if vacancies were not reported to the PSC.

Directive would be issued to department heads to report vacancies to the PSC after giving temporary promotion in case of cases pending in courts on seniority and the court had given interim ruling staying regular promotion.

Pointing out that there were instances of denial of promotion due to lack of qualified candidates, the Chief Minister said the head of the department would be asked to revert such posts to the existing cadre on a temporary basis and report the vacancies to the PSC.

The Cabinet also asked the Chief Secretary, the Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, and the Additional Chief Secretary, Administrative Reforms, to execute the measures on a priority basis in 10 days.

During the tenure of the Left Democratic Front government, 44,000 posts, including 27,000 permanent posts, were created. The government had given 1,57, 911 postings through the PSC till January 31, 2021. The PSC had published 4,012 rank lists compared to the 3,113 rank lists during the previous United Democratic Front regime.