Staff up in arms against Kerala Administrative Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Employees of constitutional bodies, who are up in arms against their exclusion from recruitment to Stream II of and III of Kerala Administrative Service (KAS), are planning to take legal recourse for seeking justice. The staff of constitutional bodies including Legislature Secretariat, PSC, Advocate General Office and Local Fund Audit Department have been denied "transfer posting" under KAS.  The KAS consists of three streams: one third, by open selection for which selection would be made by PSC and the remaining two thirds would come from existing government employees, through an examination. 

The Statutory Rules and Order pertaining to KAS which was formally launched on January 1, has no provision for recruiting permanent staff and probationers from constitutional bodies to stream II and III. In a reply to a RTI query, the authorities concerned had informed that the term "constitutional bodies" was included by mistake.

As things stand today, the staff of constitutional bodies would not get an opportunity to enter the prestigious state civil service cadre. Sources said under these circumstances a section of staff who have been denied recruitment to KAS is planning to seek court's intervention to get their rights restored. 'It is not our fault that we got appointment in constitutional bodies. Denying us space in KAS amounts to selective discrimination," said a staff on condition of anonymity. The KAS is also bogged down by another controversy: non implementation of reservation norms for the second and third stream recruitment.

The chief minister had referred the matter to Advocate General for legal opinion. Sources said the two issues; recruitment of staff of the constitutional bodies and reservations could lead to legal hassles. Meanwhile, there are allegations that a section of employees of Secretariat want to derail or at least delay full-fledged implementation of KAS for two years. It may be recalled that the UDF backed employees organisations had opposed KAS saying it would deny promotion opportunities to the Secretariat staff. 

However, notwithstanding the opposition, the government went ahead with KAS which is aimed at injecting fresh blood and efficiency in the administration. Currently most states have Class-I State Civil Services and the officers under this cadre are later promoted to IAS. In Kerala attempts made in the past for the exclusive cadre could not succeed because of the stiff opposition from staff unions.