Making a mockery of the recruitment process based on merit and reservations, recruitments to thousands of posts in over 50 government institutions in Kerala are yet to be handed over to Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC).
Even as the successive CPM and Congress-led governments in Kerala had made assurances that recruitment to all state government institutions would be done through the PSC, steps in this regard have been progressing not even at a snail’s pace. Recruitment to institutions that were formed decades back are still not being made through the PSC, but directly.
Facilitating backdoor appointments and nepotism are alleged to be the reasons behind not recruiting through PSC. Even now Kerala is witnessing a row over backdoor appointments by the ruling Left Front government.
While Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is trying to defend the process, saying that the previous Congress regime regularised over 5,000 temporary employees in various government institutions, he is yet to clarify the number of temporary employees regularised by the current government. Towards the end of the Congress government's tenure also, the state witnessed agitations by the then opposition CPM alleging backdoor appointments.
According to Indian Union Muslim League MLA Abid Hussain Thangal, who has been regularly raising the issue in the state Assembly, recruitments to around 60 government institutions, each having hundreds of posts, have not been reported to the PSC so far. It includes around 40 public sector undertakings, around ten institutions under the cultural affairs departments, several welfare fund boards and several cooperative institutions.
He said that in a reply to a calling attention motion in the Assembly in this regard in 2019 November, he had pointed out that reservation norms are also being scuttled. CM Vijayan replied that steps would be expedited to make recruitments through PSC. However, the situation still remains almost the same.
Former PSC chairman K S Radhakrishnan said that he had written to the government several times highlighting the need for making appointments through PSC to ensure fairness. However, neither the present government nor the Opposition seemed to be interested in taking the issue forward as it would plug the chances of nepotism and backdoor appointments, he flayed.