Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the universities in the State, froze the notification and issued sans VC’s knowledge for ‘illegal mass appointments’ in APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (APJAKTU). The Governor has asked to take action against those guilty after issuing proper Show Cause Notices.
The notification was meant to appoint ‘close’ candidates to the ruling Front (or party) despite the government directive to fill temporary vacancies through Employment Exchanges. Notification made it clear that the appointments would be based on interviews.
And it did not say how many vacancies there were. There were allegations that these ‘conditions’ were excuses for largescale corruption; hence Governor intervened.
Applications were invited for the vacancies of Administrative Support Staff, Office Attendant and Driver-cum-Office Attendant. Currently, 90 employees are working in KTU in various positions on a contract basis. PSC has prepared a rank list of University Assistants. Since there is no approval for permanent appointments, temporary appointments can be made from the PSC rank list.
Another option is Employment Exchange. Right-thinking people are anxious about irregularities if temporary employees are assigned examination duties, including question paper setting, valuation, mark tabulation, certificate distribution, etc.
So far, most of the temporary appointments are from the constituencies of the elected representatives who are also members of the Varsity Syndicate.
The notification was issued after Vice Chancellor Dr Ciza Thomas took over on November 04, 2022. But Vice Chancellor knew about the notification only after it was issued on November 08! The registrar signed it. When the Federation of University Employees complained to the Chancellor, he sought an explanation from the VC.
VC’s report to Chancellor states that the notification was issued without her knowledge and that most of the allegations pointed out by the Federation are right.
These incidents underline in bold letters what Governor has been stating about nepotism and corruption in the functioning of the CPM-led Left Democratic Front regime with CPM leader Pinarayi Vijayan at the helm. VC is kept in the dark about the notification for large-scale appointments.
This is more than enough to establish that the ‘blue-eyed boys’ appointments as the VCs are to carry out mass corruption in varsities.
