The ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that there are 979,327 vacancies in the central government for different posts and departments.
Ministry of railways has 293,943, followed by 264,704 in defence (civil) and 143,536 in home affairs, said the ministry.
According to the ministry, these vacancies are against the 4,035,203 sanctioned strengths of the government, with 3,055,876 posts occupied as of March 1, 2021. The least number of vacancies are in the vice-president’s secretariat, where only eight of the 64 posts are vacant, followed by 13 in agricultural research and education and 14 in public asset management.
Also Read: Assam govt to reserve 2% of govt jobs in grade 1 and 2 for ex-servicemen
Responding to a question by Congress MP Deepak Baij on the number of vacancies in various central departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs), minister of states (MoS) Jitendra Singh, on behalf of the Centre, said during the current fiscal year, “about 1.47 lakh new appointees were inducted by various ministries, departments, PSUs, autonomous bodies, banks and other establishments.”
“There are 2,93,943 vacant posts in railways against the total sanctioned strength of 15,14,007. Currently, the railways is running with 12,20,064 employees. Similarly, defence (civil) has 2,64,707 vacant posts against the sanctioned strength of 6,46,042, while the department of home affairs has 1,43,536 vacant posts against the sanctioned strength of 10,85,728,” said Singh in Lok Sabha.
Moreover, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has 129 vacant posts against the sanctioned strength of 446 and the President’s Secretariat has 91 vacant posts against the sanctioned strength of 380, he added.
As of August 2022, the government informed the Parliament that 9,79,327 posts were vacant in government offices. Of these 23,584 were group A posts, 1,18,807 were group B posts and 8,36,936 were group C posts.
In October, newly recruited by the government were 75,000, followed by 71,000 in November. The new recruits will join various ministries and departments of the central government. The appointees will join primarily group C and D posts, which have been vacant. The posts on which the new recruits will be appointed include central armed force personnel (CAFP), sub-inspectors, constables, steno, personal assistance, and income tax inspectors, among others.
The government plans to hire 1 million people in “mission mode” over the course of the next year and a half including nearly 98% vacancies in Group B and C services that are lying vacant.
Also Read: Southern Railway Recruitment 2022: Apply for various posts against sports quota
“PM @narendramodi reviewed the status of human resources in all departments and ministries and instructed that recruitment of 10 lakh people be done by the government under ‘mission mode’ in next 1.5 years,” a tweet on the official handle of the Prime Minister’s Office stated in August.
The details of recruitment made through three major recruiting agencies, including Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) in central government during the last three years are as follows — for UPSC the number stands at 4,399 in 2018-19; 5,230 in 2019-20; 3,609 in 2020-21; and 13,238 in total.
The SSC, in the meantime, hired 16,748 people in 2018-19; 14,691 in 2019-20; 68,891 in 2020-21; with a total hiring of over 1,00,330 employees.
The railway board in the interim overall hired 1,51,900 people, with the highest being in 2019-20, which was 1,28,456.
