The Civil Police Constable Rank List will expire next month. The candidates have been on strike for the past few days. Even though they protested by shaving their heads and eating grass, the government pretended not to notice or call them for discussion. Their road blockade in front of the secretariat on Wednesday turned violent and several were injured as police used lathis to disperse the protesters. Being included in a rank list is a very difficult thing in the state. It is natural for candidates to have many expectations in this regard. It is not surprising that the aspirants got worried and came up with various forms of agitation to grab the government's attention when they saw that the tenure of the current list is coming to an end without even an appointment equal to the appointment from the previous list. However, it is not right for the leftist government to take the attitude of 'let them lie down and protest, they will get up and leave when the sun hits them hard'.

They resorted to road blockades when protesting with placards that said, "We are not ready to leave this country for work," did not yield any results. According to the rank holders, only 3326 persons have been appointed so far from the rank list of 13,975 persons. The demands of the strikers are either that maximum rank holders should be appointed within a month or that the tenure of the rank list should be extended by one year. While all PSC rank lists have a tenure of two or three years or more, only the CPO rank list has a tenure of one year.

The UDF government led by Oommen Chandy, with the aim of bringing young blood into the force, introduced the reform of one-year enlistment, which changed the old practice and started an exam for the post every year. This has actually become a big setback for the candidates. Last year, about 5,000 people were appointed from a list of 9,000 people. This time the number of rank holders on the list was 13,975, so naturally they expected more people to get appointed but it didn't happen. Not even four thousand people have been appointed yet. The list will expire within 35 days. It is heard that the new list has been prepared by PSC.

When the Dr. Vandana murder case occurred, the government had promised that one policeman would be put on duty permanently in all the government hospitals in the state, and for that, more people would be appointed from the list. However, the government withdrew from this later. If the government wishes, at least one thousand people can be appointed in the police. However, due to a severe financial crisis, the government is unable to do so. If that is the case, it is enough to extend the period of the rank list. The government is keeping silent on that too. This is not right. Therefore, the government should at least be ready to discuss the issue with the protesters urgently.