In almost, every assembly session, backdoor appointments in the government service has become a topic of discussion.
It is a fact that even though the rank list of PSCs already exists, many people enter the service during the tenure of different governments.
Kerala has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.
There are millions of young people here who have been waiting for years for jobs; both undergraduates and postgraduates are among them. Unemployed youths with technical qualifications are also no less.
It is in this context that the backdoor appointment of PSC, if it happens anywhere, become a point of contention.
When the issue of backdoor appointments was raised in the Assembly on Tuesday in the form of a complaint, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tried to downplay the problem by saying that such appointments are sometimes necessary on humanitarian grounds.
He said some of those who had been working temporarily for ten years would have to be made permanent in the service on humanitarian grounds and this had been happening during every government.
Though the decision comes under the government’s jurisdiction, there is also a flipside to it.
The young men and women who have worked hard and are impatiently waiting for appointment in the PSC rank list also deserves humane consideration. Isn’t so?
It is not because there are no vacancies, but because they are not reported on time and often the PSC rank list get ‘stuck’.
The current government has only three to four months to complete its term. This is why backdoor appointments are going on in full swing.
In addition to government departments, the move to regularise backdoor recruitments in KILA, Keltron, Civil Supplies and KTDC PSUs has already become controversial.
Needless to say, the irregular backdoor appointments are malicious and injustice to those who have won the exam and got a place in the PSC rank list. While the Chief Minister justifies that only those who have been temporary for more than ten years are being made permanent, it is necessary to look into how they were able to remain there for so long.
The bribery and string-pulling involved in backdoor appointments is an open secret.
As soon as the right of appointment to an institution is handed over to PSC, special rules can be prepared and action can be taken to expedite the appointment.
But this is not done in time bound manner. There are also come crude minds behind this.
The Chief Minister had revealed in the Assembly that this government has so far appointed more than 1.5 lakh people through PSC.
But it should not be forgotten that with this came a lot of criticism over backdoor appointments. A backdoor appointment of any kind is a malpractice that deceives millions of young people who eagerly wait for employment.
The Opposition had the other day read in the Assembly a letter written by the Chairman of the Film Academy to the Minister of Culture to regularise four temporary staff of the Film Academy.
The Opposition had read in the Assembly a letter written by the Chairman of the Film Academy to the Minister of Culture to stabilize the four temporary members of the Film Academy.
Interestingly, the Chairman’s finding, according to his letter, was that the regularization of these left-leaning employees was essential to maintain the left-wing character of the film academy.
He has forgotten the fact that the film academy is not an institution to be appointed on the basis of political color.
The current mass regularisation moves are a testament to the fact that there are such kind of heads in other public sector institutions