THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a significant step to ensure adequate representation for SC/STs in government service, Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday directed department secretaries to avoid the delay in filling up posts reserved for these sections in the state. At a high level meeting here, the chief minister asked secretaries to rectify the low representation of SC/ST in various departments at the earliest.
Mr Vijayan was speaking at the meeting to review the progress of special recruitment in various departments. He said special recruitment meant for SC/ST should be taken on priority by departments concerned, periodic review of the progress of special recruitment be undertaken in a time bond manner and steps should be taken to remove the delay in reporting the vacancies to the PSC. The chief minister asked the PSC to fill up the vacancies in a time bound manner. In case of no vacancies, supernumerary posts should be created to solve the lack of representation.
It was decided that the chief minister headed committee would hold review meetings once in six months. At the meeting, SC/ST Welfare Minister A. K. Balan pointed to the lapse on the part of certain departments in reporting vacancies to PSC. There was also delay in publishing the rank list. According to January 1, 2017 statistics, appointments are to be made in 871 posts reserved for SC/ST. The meeting decided to seek a report from PSC on the posts which had not been filled up despite vacancies being reported.
