Kerala PSC rank list: Youth Cong workers continue protest

Youth Congress workerson Monday continued their protest in front of the secretariathere demanding that the validity of the Last Grade PSC ranklist published in 2017 be extended by six more months.

Several youths have been protesting in front of thestate secretariat since January 26 to press the demand.

Youth congress workers also staged protests in otherparts of the state and at some places, the protest becameviolent forcing the police to use water cannons to dispersethe crowd.

Senior Congress leader and former Chief ministerOommen Chandy met the protesters and said his party will seewhether any legal assistance could be made available for theagitating youths.

Youth League workers and MSF workers too protested infront of the secretariat and tried to scale the fence of thecomplex resulting in a minor scuffle between the activists andpolice, police said.

Meanwhile, the special cabinet which met today heredid not take up the matter of agitating PSC rank holders butdecided to make permanent 151 staff members in variousdepartments who were employed by the state government for morethan ten years.

The Congress had earlier alleged that there werebackdoor appointments in various government departments inKerala in the guise of making permanent some of the staff.

The state government in a release said those who weremade permanent are in those posts where appointments cannot bemade through PSC or are not left to the Public ServiceCommission.

The BJP also issued a statement against the stategovernment, saying the cabinet refusing to discuss theprotests shows the ''arrogant attitude'' of the governmenttowards the youth.

The cabinet meeting also decided to create 140 newposts including 115 teacher posts in the Wayanad Medicalcollege, which will start its operation soon.

''The cabinet also decided to create 55 new posts inthe Kerala Coir Workers Welfare Fund Board, six entry cadreposts in Malabar devaswom and 60 posts in Advocate Generaloffice,'' the state government said in a release.PTI RRT BNADMINISTRATOR BNADMINISTRATOR