Kerala Public Service Commission tampers with recruitment norm for handicapped

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An arbitrary change in the rotation policy for recruitments made by the Kerala Public Service Commission has adversely affected the employment opportunities of persons with disabilities.

The Centre had, in an office memorandum (OM) issued on December 29, 2005, laid down the rotation ratio for persons with disabilities as 1, 34 and 67.

This means, the advice memo should be first sent to a handicapped person in the list once vacancies have been reported in a Department. And after 33 slots are filled, another handicapped candidate should be called first for vacancies between 34 and 66 slots, and so on.

However, the PSC changed the rotation ratio to 33, 66 and 99, taking away the primacy of the handicapped in the recruitment process. As per Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, three percent of the vacancies reported should be filled by persons with disabilities.

The Act lays down three kinds of disabilities for the purposes of recruitment: blindness or low vision, hearing impairment, and locomotor disability or cerebral palsy.

The PSC persists with its rotation policy in spite of a Supreme Court verdict in 2003 that directs states to follow the 2005 OM.

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