Grace marks for home candidates

KOCHI: Job seekers applying for government posts in their home districts will now get an edge over their competitors from other districts. The government has agreed to a recommendation by the Kerala State Public Service Commission that home-district applicants, selected through the PSCs district-wise recruitment, should be given a grace mark of five in the selection tests. The government is expected to issue an order to this effect soon.

The step is expected to benefit home-district applicants and encourage them to stay on in their own districts. However, this will only apply to those posts for which recruitments are made by the PSC in each districts. The posts will include lower division clerk (LDC), last grade servant (peon), police constable, Excise guard, Forest guard, and schoolteachers up to high school level.

The PSC had made the recommendation more than five years back and it was only recently that the government decided to act on it. Applicants from northern districts as well as Idukki are likely to benefit since they are often outsmarted by applicants from the southern districts.

Some three years back, the PSC had made two other important recommendations, which are yet to be accepted by the government, the senior official said. This related to the educational qualifications of last grade servants and clerks. The PSC wanted that only non-graduates should be considered for the peons post and that the minimum qualification for clerk should be graduation.