THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Severe staff shortage has been affecting the functioning of Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC). The hope that the sanctioning of 163 new posts for the PSC would solve the staff shortage is going awry with the government backtracking on its decision citing that the Finance Department was yet to clear it. As of late, the PSC has been burdened with heavy workload following the introduction of call centre facility, issuance of NCA notification following the implementation of the Narendran Commission’s report, certificate verification and filling of the backlog in the vacancies of physically challenged persons. The call centre facility introduced by the end of last year has a capacity to operate 30 lines at a time. But there are only four or five persons at present to man the call centre. One-time registration facility introduced by the PSC was a boon to the candidates as they have to register only once for offering their candidature. In case of adding additional qualifications, theyhave to add it online. With incidents of impersonation and bogus people managing to get government jobs being reported recently, the PSC had ordered verification of certificates with retrospective effect from 2010. These works require additional man power. PSC Chairman K S Radhakrishnan and senior members of the Commission had met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy early last month seeking urgent sanctioning of 163 posts to meet the staff shortage. The Cabinet meeting on January 11 had considered the proposal and forwarded the same to the Finance Department for its approval. But on last Wednesday, during the post-Cabinet briefing, the Chief Minister said that a final decision on the proposal would be taken only after the approval of the Finance Department. However, government sources said that the Finance Department, as usual, had reservations about the proposal. PSC Chairman Radhakrishnan told ‘Express’ that the PSC had to handle over 70 lakh applications a year and completing the formalities in a candidate-friendly manner would require a lot of support from the government. ‘’We are offering free registration to candidates. All reforms are aimed at making the functions of the PSC candidate-friendly, whether it be online registration or call centre,’’ he said. He said that while universities and examination boards conduct the exams they have their own resources to meet the manpower requirements. But for the PSC, it has to depend on others on various counts. “Each notification nowdays means more supplementary notifications. Issuance of No Candidate Availability (NCA) notification has also added to our workload,’’ he said. The PSC Chairman, however, hoped that the government would take a favourable stand on the issue “as early as possible.’’
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