The 9,000 candidates who have got appointment advice for the posts of conductor in the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will have to kick their heels for long as the corporation has not yet given a firm commitment to absorb them within a specific period.
Kerala Public Service Commission sources told The Hindu here on Thursday that the mandatory three-month period for their appointment had expired, and the candidates would have to petition the commission to take up their case yet again. The alleged haste shown by the commission in issuing such a large number of appointment memos without considering the financial constraints of the KSRTC is being pointed out as the main reason for their plight.
The commission’s attempt, however, is likely to challenge the credibility of its recruitment process. Till date, the commission’s appointment advice had been considered a firm job offer. Now that has been put at stake.
The government, the commission and the corporation authorities will have to iron out a solution to resolve the crisis, sources said. The appointment memos to the 9,000 candidates were issued against the 9,300 vacancies reported by the KSRTC in phases.
While the recruitment process was progressing, the KSRTC authorities are understood to have apprised the commission of its inability to take in such a large number of candidates at one go and wanted to restrict the number to 3,700.
The commission authorities refused to heed the requests and went ahead with the procedures on the premise that vacancies once reported cannot be repealed or slashed on any grounds.
The appointment of conductors and drivers is directly linked to the number of schedules operated by the corporation. If the current crisis triggered by the recurring increase in diesel prices prevails, a massive cut in schedules will be the result. The financial crisis has deepened during the past two months, and the corporation has even defaulted on the payment of pension.
