Processing of about five lakh applications for the Secretariat assistants post, issuing recruitment advice for the 2,000-odd supernumerary lower division clerk vacancies and such other mandatory functions of the Public Service Commission (PSC) are likely to go haywire as 16 officers holding key positions have sought a month’s leave from May.
Commission sources told The Hindu here that officers above the deputy secretary’s rank have sought leave as part of the internal promotion process. Functioning of district offices in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thrissur, Idukki and the district and regional offices in Kollam too would be badly hit since the officers in charge are also there among those who had applied for leave.
The qualifying examination for the Secretariat assistants post is slated to be held on May 16 and an all-out bid is being made to process the applications and complete the preparations against the deadline.
The rank list of last grade servants for various departments is due to be published in May. As the rank list for selecting lower division clerks expired on March 30, the government had directed all heads of departments to report the supernumerary vacancies to the commission and about 150-odd vacancies were reported from each district. The maximum number of 250 vacancies were reported from Thiruvananthapuram district.
Though the government had completed the reporting process, the commission officials have to seek clarifications on many issues from the heads of departments about the anticipated vacancies and this itself is an exacting process. Secretariat assistant and lower division clerk are the two posts which are always in great demand among the job-seekers and any delay in conducting the examination or publishing the list in time would incur heavy damage to the commission, sources said.
The commission is already facing an acute staff shortage. Repeated requests to the government for enhancing the staff strength in proportion to the increasing workload had not yielded any positive outcome and the emerging situation is likely to affect the functioning of the commission further. No alternative arrangement has been made so far to address the crisis. The issue would figure at the commission meeting on Monday, the sources said.
Secretariat assistant exam slated for May 16
Functioning of district offices too will be affected