Candidates who have been selected for civil police officer posts staged a protest here on Friday demanding that the government extend the validity of the rank list at least by eight months.
The protesters said that they had lost eight months in two stages – four months by way of freezing of the rank list following the detection of cheating in the civil police officer test by two SFI leaders and another four months in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The rank list that came into force on July 1, 2019, is set to expire on June 30. None was appointed after a few postings made in the first phase of the rank list. The protesters said that political issues, natural calamities and the pandemic had badly affected the appointments to be made in seven police battalions in the State.
They said those who had made it to the rank list had cleared written tests, physical tests and medical tests. They alleged that no vacancies in the police force were reported to the PSC since 2019. The lockdown prevented the candidates from going to the respective offices and inquiring about the number of vacancies.
They said the police force had more vacancies than could be filled by all the recruits in the rank list. Civilian volunteers taken to help the police were getting extension as there was shortage of personnel in the police, they said.
They said that if the government did not extend the validity of the rank list at least by eight months, it would seriously affect the future of hundreds of candidates.
