Jobseekers concerned over delay in publication of PSC rank lists

Officials say lists will be published in a fortnight

Undue delays in the publication of Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) results and rank lists for posts with degree and tenth standard as the minimum qualification, especially for last grade servant (LGS) and Lower Division Clerk (LDC) posts, have become a major concern for jobseekers.

Aspirants, who have been airing their apprehensions in recent months in social media, point out that notifications for some of these examinations were issued around two years ago and the examinations held last year. The results are yet to be published, even as the notifications for the next tenth-level preliminary examinations have been announced for May.

PSC officials, meanwhile, maintain that the rank lists will be published within two weeks once the accurate number of vacancies in each department is reported to the PSC.

“When the new model of examination, with a preliminary test and a main examination, was announced, the PSC promised that it will help streamline the entire process and the results will be announced quickly. However, the results have been delayed a lot and the next preliminary exam is scheduled to be held in May. How can an exam be held when the previous year’s results are not yet announced? It will create needless confusion for job aspirants,” says Renjith, a jobseeker.

The degree-level preliminary examinations were held on October 30 and November 13 last year. The main examination for the LDC was held on November 20 and the LGS on November 27. As many as 493 rank lists of the PSC, including that of the LGS, expired on August 4 last year after the State Cabinet extended the validity by six months.

Vacancy reporting

According to a top PSC official, the commission is waiting for the reporting of vacancies from various departments before publishing the list. The Chief Secretary recently issued a circular asking department heads to report all vacancies to the PSC this month.

"We are hoping that the vacancies will be reported soon and the rank lists prepared within two weeks. The selection proposal can be submitted only based on the number of vacancies reported. The job aspirants had earlier raised a concern that the size of the rank list could be small this year. We tried to address these concerns too. It was at this time that the Chief Secretary's direction had come. Posts like LDC and LGS are repositories of vacancies. We are taking all care before publishing the final rank list," said the official.

The PSC has been maintaining that publication of the rank list after accumulation of an adequate number of vacancies would be beneficial to the jobseekers too. Most of the reported vacancies are those arising due to retirements from various departments.

Few Central postings

"One of the issues currently is that there are hardly any recruitments to Central government institutions. Earlier, a large number of those who write the PSC examinations here would go for these jobs, due to which there were a large number of Not Joining Duty (NJD) vacancies too after the rank list was published. Now, that is not happening and even after the publication of the rank list, there will be quite a lot of people who will be looking for the few available vacancies," said another PSC official.