Rumblings in local bodies over die-in-harness scheme

Allegations of unfair gain to those recruited under scheme

The die-in-harness scheme of the State government, wherein immediate dependants of employees who die while in service are given appointments on compassionate grounds, has been a boon to many families.

But, a large percentage of such employees in the local bodies, far in excess of the stipulated quota of 5 per cent of the total appointments, have led to questions from those who were appointed through the PSC list.

The regular employees, who have been actively fighting at the Administrative Tribunal demanding that the norms be followed in such appointments, say that this has resulted in the reduction in quality of service.

Situation in corporation

In Thiruvananthapuram Corporation alone, there are 180 such employees, as per a reply furnished in the Assembly in July 2014. This includes 95 clerks, out of a total of 218 clerks.

“It’s no one’s case that employees should not be appointed through die-in-harness. But, here the numbers are so huge, sometimes crossing 50 per cent of the total strength in some local bodies, when the Government Order stipulates 5 per cent. This means that general merit and reservation guidelines are not honoured,” says an employee.

A large number of such appointments happened in between 1993 and 2003, when there was no PSC list in force in the Municipal Common Service.

“Taking advantage of this situation, numerous appointments were made in the category of clerks, in excess of the prescribed quota. Those who were appointed thus have been given rank and seniority above the directly recruited Lower Division Clerks in the Municipal Common Service. No seniority list was published for these posts for several years,” says an employee.

Other departments

The employees also point to a Government Order issued on July 21, 2014, in which norms were fixed regarding compassionate employment appointments in the other government departments.

As per this, “regularisation of appointment shall be done based on the date of occurrence of vacancies to which they are entitled as per the 5 per cent quota earmarked for compassionate appointment and till such regularisation of appointments, they will continue to be in the supernumerary posts.”

“But, in Municipal Service, their appointments are regularised before those of the directly recruited employees. Last week, the LSG department called us for a hearing. We hope something will come out of it,” says an employee.