Kerala halts ‘regularisation’ of contract jobs
TRIVANDRUM: The Kerala cabinet has decided to halt the regularisation process of contract employees as hundreds of jobless youngsters continue their protest against “backdoor recruitments.”
The job aspirants who are on the rank list of the state recruiter, Public Service Commission (PSC), were demonstrating before the state secretariat here for nearly a month now.
They wanted a rollback on all such appointments made to accommodate “cronies” of the ruling politicians bypassing the rank list.
The cabinet which met here on Wednesday also cleared 3,000 new posts in the health sector, including the Government Medical College in Kannur, to pacify the job aspirants. The cabinet had regularised hundreds of temporary jobs at the fag end of the government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M) which goes to polls in two months.
Reacting to the cabinet decision, the protesters said they would remain on the streets until the government agrees to a total rollback and fill the posts from the merit list.
Though the demonstrators insist they have no political affiliation, the opposition Congress party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are backing them.
They welcomed the decision to halt regularisation of temporary employees but wanted to appoint a ministerial panel to look into their complaints. “The government should assure the appointment of at least one in five job seekers who are on the merit list,” Laya Rajesh, one of the protestors, told reporters here.
“The government was filling vacant posts with hundreds of people arbitrarily. We are ready for talks with the ministers but they are not willing.”
Family members of the rank holders also joined them in their round-the-clock protest that has been receiving growing popular support, which the opposition parties are trying to cash in on ahead of elections.
Young Congress party legislators Shafi Parambil and KS Sabarinadhan are also on a hunger strike before the secretariat at the venue in their support for the past four days.
Stepping up his atack, Ramesh Chennithala, the opposition floor leader in the state assembly, released a document showing 117,267 temporary recruits in government services.
On Tuesday, the Kerala High Court halted regularisation of 1,850 staff at the Kerala Bank, a corporatised consortium of cooperatives, putting further pressure on the state government.
The opposition alleges that the CPI (M) leaders were manipulating even the PSC rank list since it came to power in 2016 allowing their activists to sneak in.