The government has informed the Public Service Commission (PSC) that it had erred in putting the number of vacancies in the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) at 9,016.
Replying to a submission by V.T. Balram (Congress) in the Assembly on Wednesday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the actual number of vacancies in the KSRTC was only 3,808.
No new buses
The officials concerned had put the number at 9,016 in view of the decision to purchase 1,000 new buses. This was wrong because most of these buses were being procured as replacements for buses that were being phased out, he said.
Mr. Chandy admitted that this had given rise to the suspicion that the government had communicated a higher number to the PSC to pave the way for backdoor recruitment.
There was no question of the government permitting backdoor appointments. The government would recruit only candidates recommended by the PSC.
The decision in the issue now rested with the PSC, he said and reiterated that the government had not taken any decision to enforce a freeze on recruitment or to raise the retirement age of State employees.
Earlier, replying to a submission by Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan, the Chief Minister said the government was not contemplating any immediate increase in the minimum pension being paid to employees who had not completed 10 years of service. The government had increased the minimum pension from Rs.2,160 to Rs.4,050 on February 22, 2011, as part of pay revision.
It had also been given retrospective effect from July 1, 2009. Given the increasing pension burden, the government would not be in a position to consider another increase anytime soon. The government had also not thought of paying family pension to this category of pensioners, the Chief Minister said.
Source: The Hindu
