THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The recruitment of laboratory technicians in the health department has come to a standstill as entry cadre posts have been slashed as part of the creation of a new senior grade post for promotion as per the Pay Commission recommendation. District-level rank lists will expire on March 25. As per estimations, there were 10-15 vacancies in each district, but recruitment has been stopped as the posts were cut.

To create senior-grade posts, grade II and I posts have been cut. With this, there has been a decrease in the vacancies in the entry cadre post, grade II. 142 posts have been reduced in grade II where there were 723 posts. This is despite the director's recommendation to create 1,518 new posts in the health department. Most of the labs in the hospitals are now staffed on a temporary basis. Candidates demand that new posts should be created instead of cuts.

The rank lists came into force in the districts in March 2020. There has been no major action after the initial appointments. In some districts, no appointment memo has been sent after 2020. Only 544 people were appointed in 14 districts.

More than 400 institutions without permanent posts

Candidates say that there are more than 400 health institutions in the state with no permanent posts despite having laboratory facilities. Although there is a government directive that two lab technicians are mandatory in community health centers, most of them have only one post, and some places don't have even one. Even when other posts were created in more than 200 places raised as family health centers, only the post of lab technician was not allowed. Out of the 1200 new posts created in the health department, not a single post was for a lab technician.