Kerala: Differently-abled set to become dy collectors

Thiruvananthapuram: The revenue department has begun processing the appointment orders of Ajesh K. of Payyannur who is visually challenged and K. Madhu of Thrissur who is orthopedically handicapped for the posts of deputy collector, making them the first set of physically handicapped candidates being appointed to the post.  Ajesh, currently working as secretariat assistant at the chief minister’s public grievance redressal cell, will be the first candidate appointed to the post.

It was the relentless fight by IIT alumnus Madhu that led to a favourable verdict from the Kerala Administrative Tribunal (KAT) on reservation for physically handicapped in government jobs. The KAT had asked the state government to issue a special order to appoint the two as per the Persons with Disability Act, 1995, and the Central government’s office memorandum fixing the physically challenged quota at three percent.

The KAT order was issued after Madhu, approached the Tribunal stating that the department had not followed its order on August 8,2017 to create supernumerary posts within a month to accommodate persons with disabilities like him.

Madhu told Deccan Chronicle that the Public Service Commission (PSC) had sent advice memos to the two candidates. The proposal was forwarded to the revenue department which in turn sent the file to revenue minister E. Chandrasekharan’s office. The minister ratified the decision. The appointment order is likely to come in one week’s time, said Madhu.

The Tribunal, in its latest order, also directed such vacancies should be notified to the PSC in order to advise physically disabled candidates from the rank list that came out on January 17, 2014. The order was issued as there was no move to implement the January 19, 2017 order of KAT that directed the Social Justice principal secretary to issue an order revising the reservation roster followed by the PSC for physically handicapped candidates while issuing advice memos for government jobs.

The state PSC was following the rotation pattern of 33:66:99 despite repeated high court orders that the 1:34:64 pattern should be followed. If the 1:34:64 pattern is followed, the first advice memo should go to the highest ranked handicapped person in the rank list when vacancies are reported in a department, unlike in the existing scenario where the highest ranked can get a call only for the 33rd vacancy.

Madhu, obtained his M.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur, and  successfully wrote the preliminary and final examinations for the post of deputy collector. However, in the rank list published by the PSC, no person was included in the physically handicapped category. Madhu challenged this in 2015, following which the AT had directed the PSC to include the applicant in the rank list.

However, when the applicant approached the PSC, he was told that the reservation for the physically handicapped category was fixed as 33:66: 99 and only 16 persons had been advised since January 1, 2008. However, the KAT order pointed out that only 33 candidates had been advised since 1996, and none among them were physically handicapped. In this context, the Tribunal asked the state to “expedite” the decision on fixing the physically handicapped roster along the 1:34:67 pattern.