THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former chief minister Oommen Chandy has said the LDF government cancelled the rank list for the 31 posts and if these rank lists were extended for one-and-a-half year more, then it would have given appointment for 350 more candidates in the list.
Chandy said the previous UDF government had extended the tenure of the PSC rank lists when there was no new list to replace the old ones. This was the policy adopted by the UDF government.
“Now, the LDF convener alleges that Oommen Chandy had taken bribe to extend these lists. I am challenging him to prove his allegation. If he can bring at least one candidate who have given bribe to extend the list, then I am ready to end this job,” Chandy said.
Chandy, who continued to pledge his support for the candidates who are agitating before secretariat, said the LDF and the UDF governments have different policies while dealing with the PSC rank lists.
The UDF government has never cancelled a rank list. It had only extended the lists if there are no other lists to replace the expiring one. The UDF government had extended many rank lists up to one-and-a-half years. However, the present LDF government has cancelled all the rank lists which have completed three years and 133 such rank lists have lapsed due to this policy. The interesting part is that the government had no new rank lists to replace them. This has resulted in the backdoor recruitments, he said.
However Chandy was not ready to echo the same sentiments of other Congress leaders like Ramesh Chennithala and Mullappally Ramachandran that if the UDF comes back to power it will review all the decisions taken by the LDF government to regularize the temporary posts. “The UDF is not ready to wreak vengeance on those who have been regularized by the LDF government,” he said.
“What the chief minister is saying about the placements made during his tenure is not the exact number of people who have joined the service. But it is the number of advice memos which the PSC had sent to the candidates who are in the rank lists,” said Chandy.
Chandy visited the protesting candidates on Tuesday too. He also visited the satyagraha pandal of Youth Congress leaders and MLAs Shafi Parambil and K S Sabarinadhan who are on an indefinite fast.