Delay in appointment through PSC is not a piece of new news. It is a misfortune that candidates have been facing for a long time. Even if PSC prepares the rank list after conducting the exam and interview, the government has to make the final call for the appointment to take place. Vacancies are to be reported to PSC by Heads of Departments. However, the Heads of Departments are not fulfilling this duty properly. From time to time, the government has been warning that it will take action against those who do not report vacancies on time. Yet the situation remains unchanged. Candidates will be left waiting for the PSC rank list. The list will expire after three years. Once again exam and preparation of the rank list will be conducted for the same vacancies as usual.

Even though the schools have reopened, most of the government schools are functioning without enough teachers. This is not because Kerala does not have enough qualified teachers. The problem lies with the official level which is not diligent enough to speed up the appointment process. The same negligence is shown in the case of police appointments as well. Almost all the stations are facing a shortage of policemen. Although more than 1500 vacancies are reported, no recruitment is taking place. The actual number of vacancies will be twice the number of reported vacancies. However, no action is being taken as they are not properly reported to the appointing authorities. 1536 vacancies have been reported in KAP and SAP battalions in seven districts of the state. PSC has prepared rank lists consisting of 13972 people. Candidates can be trained and appointed from those included in these lists. However, the authorities have not even taken the initial steps for this. Even the advice memo has not been sent by the PSC. Not even a year is left for the expiry of the rank list. Candidates to be appointed as police force members have to complete training for a certain number of months. Their training cannot be completed at once. They need to be trained in batches.

The functioning of various police stations in the state is disrupted due to the shortage of policemen. The superiors and the government are aware of the mental stress faced by the police personnel who have to go on duty for long hours. Then why are they not taking action to increase the strength of the force? It seems that the authorities are aiming to delay the appointments as much as possible without even sending an advice memo despite having the rank list. The authorities should not torment the candidates by showing the rank list. 5610 appointments were made from the previous rank list. It is doubtful that even half of that number will be appointed from the current list. The problem is the lifespan of the rank list itself. Traffic duty and traffic accident cases are now to be handled by the respective stations. Hospital security will also be under the control of the local police stations. All this can be carried out properly only if the strength of the police force is increased. It is certain that the efficiency of the police will further decrease if a solution is not found for the delay in appointments.