THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac’s statement that the government can’t provide jobs to all those who figure in the PSC rank list was a truthful observation but obviously delivered at the wrong time. It also begs the question as to why successive governments -- including Isaac's -- publish these rank lists with such fanfare.
There have been suggestions made by experts about the need to trim down the number of candidates on PSC rank lists. The practice of publishing rank lists with thousands of candidates for a few hundred vacancies is, however, a norm which serves no purpose for job aspirants. “The number of candidates shortlisted for a particular post should be limited to double the number of actual vacancies. The practice of giving unrealistic hope to people should be abandoned,” suggests PSC former chairman K S Radhakrishnan.
The introduction of e-governance has rendered several posts obsolete. As a result, the number of government jobs would naturally come down with every passing year. Isaac’s statement that hardly 22,000 job vacancies have been reported in the current fiscal supports this argument.
However, successive governments have not addressed the issue candidly. Instead, they compete against each other in promising more jobs. While doing so, they also explore all opportunities to facilitate a large number of backdoor appointments, mostly as a reward for political servitude.
Government jobs haven’t lost their charm even bereft of the lure of lifelong pension. “Job security remains its major appeal. Service organizations literally work as the arms of political parties. This is the reason why governments implement pay revisions every five years, unmindful of the huge financial liability they force on an already perilous exchequer,” said B A Prakash, former chairman of state public expenditure review committee.
There has been a threefold increase in government expenditure on salaries between 2011 and 2019. Currently, 36.6% of state’s revenue receipts go towards salaries and 21% towards pensions. “The amount being spent by Kerala government to meet salary and pension expenditure is much higher than what bigger states spend towards the same. This would eventually lead to the collapse of state finances,” he warns.
Moreover, there are few takers for the LDF government’s fresh claim that if given a chance it would create 20 lakh job opportunities in the next five years. The current employee strength in the IT sector in Kerala is less than two lakh and hence the projected job figures by tapping the ‘work-from-home’ or ‘worknear-home’ culture is nowhere near reality, they argue. “What is needed is a conducive environment for business to flourish. However, it’s the reverse that happens,” said former state planning board member and technocrat G Vijayaraghavan.