PCS, allied services: Appointment of 6 Army veterans in limbo

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 10

It is taking rather too long for the Punjab Government to clear the appointment of six ex-servicemen in the PCS and allied services after their selection one and a half year ago.

It is learnt a questionable move by the state government to relax the age norms to appoint one of the candidates as a DSP is delaying the appointment of five others as excise and taxation officers and block development officers.

Their case is unnecessarily being linked with the case of the ex-serviceman who is being backed by a senior political appointee in the CMO.

The selections were made in the ex-servicemen quota of 2015. Initially, the appointment of at least 42 candidates in the PCS and allied services had been stuck due to the delay in the appointment of Major Sumer Singh as a DSP.

Due to repeated representations from the affected candidates, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh recently decided to delink the appointments of the ex-servicemen from the other categories of candidates. However, the case of other ex-servicemen is still linked with the DSP appointment case.

A senior government functionary said they were waiting for the opinion from the office of the Advocate General on the case for the past two months.

Besides, the Legal Department and the Personnel Department have termed the age relaxation by the Home Department for the candidate as not being in conformity with the provisions of Rule 14 of the Punjab Police Service Rules, 1959. It had been pointed out that the norm could not be changed after the recruitment had already been completed and the posts filled. The post with relaxed norms could be filled through an advertisement against a new vacancy, the Legal Department had said.

“Why the case of the ex-serviceman is being made an issue to delay our appointment? There is no link between these,” said a candidate. The candidates have written again to the CM to come to their rescue.