Budget Session: Ministries’ Responses Reveal Huge Pending Vacancies in Central Govt

Introduction

As per the parliamentary responses shared by the Union Government during the current Monsoon Session which began on July 22, the issue of decreasing government’s jobs and pending vacancies starkly came to the fore as revealed from the unstarred answers given by ministers in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Incidentally, Indian Railways, which has historically provided huge job opportunities to millions of young Indians, was accused by the opposition parties of whittling down its recruitment. In the response to the question posed in the Lok Sabha by the Congress MP Sukhdeo Bhagat regarding the decreasing recruitment in the railways, the Union Minister of Railways, Ashwini Vaishnav, said that between 2004 and 2014, 4.11 lakh recruitments were done by the railways compared to 5.02 lakh recruitments between 2014 and 2024. Pertinently, the data reveals that desperate number of youths are applying for the limited number of posts. As per the answer provided by Vaishnav, “Computer Based Test (CBT) exam for more than 1.26 crore candidates was conducted in 7 phases from 28.12.2020 to 31.07.2021…across 211 cities…” and another “CBT was conducted for more than 1.1 crore candidates in 5 phases from 17.08.2022 to 11.10.2022…across 191 cities…”. Notably, based on these exams, only 1,30,581 candidates were finally recruited in the railways out of more than 2.37 crore job applicants. The minister also said that this year 32,603 vacancies have been advertised between January and March through four Centralized Notifications (CENs) for Group C posts.

Vacancies in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF)

The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, in his reply to the question posed by Rajya Sabha MP from AIADMK, C. Ve. Shanmugam, regarding pending vacancies in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), informed the house that as on July 1, 2024 there are 84,106 unfilled vacancies against total sanctioned strength of 10,45,751 posts in the CAPFs and Assam Rifles(AR). He said that 67,345 people were recruited between April, 2023 and February, 2024 and further “64,091 vacancies have been notified and are at different stages of recruitment.” On the concern raised by Shanmugan, whether large number of vacancies is leading to overtime work for existing personnel, the response seemed to tone down the issue by suggesting that “with insignificant effective vacancies compared to the size of the forces, the question of overtime doesn’t arise”.

Rai said that the government has taken effective steps to “expeditiously” fill up these vacancies and has made the decision to reserve 10% of vacancies for ex-Agniveers in the recruitment to the post of Constable (General Duty)/Rifleman in the CAPF and Assam Rifles. Further, he replied that provision is provided for relaxation of upper age limit and exemption from Physical Efficiency Test to such candidates, along with reduction in cut off marks for shortlist candidates applying for the post of Constable/GD.

Unfilled positions in Central Universities

John Brittas, CPI (M) Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala, posed a series of queries to the Minister of Education on existing vacancies in Central varsities and new recruitment undertaken in the last 3 years, including details on SC/ST/OBC recruitments. In its response, the Minister of State for Education, Sukanta Majumdar, informed the house that as against the sanctioned strength of 18940 teaching posts and 35640 non-teaching posts in the Central Universities, 5060 teaching posts and 16719 non-teaching posts remains unfilled as on April 1, 2024. Majumdar further communicated that through “special recruitment drives more than 9650 positions (teaching and non-teaching) have been filled out of which 1281 positions have been filled by Scheduled Castes (SCs), 634 by Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 2011 by Other Backward Classes (OBCs).”  However, the answer from the Ministry of Education did not provide specific state-wise and category-wise details of the recruitment as requested in the question.

Deflecting and vague responses

Significantly, few of the questions posed by members of the parliament did not elicit answers to any specific queries raised in the questions but were responded back with generic and vague replies. On the question posed in the Rajya Sabha by Congress MP Mallikarjun Kharge asking for the details “of total appointment letters given by the Prime Minister under Rozgar Mela, Rozgar Mela-wise, Ministry-wise, and State-wise”, the answer given by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances And Pensions, and the Prime Minister’s Office, merely mentioned that “Details of appointments made are maintained by the respective Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations/States etc.”, without clarifying whether the Central Government has access to such data or not.

In a separate question asked by CPI (M) MP from Lok Sabha, Amra Ram, he inquired about “the number of posts lying vacant in the Offices of Central Government and Public Sector Undertakings along with the time since when the posts are lying vacant”. In response, the Minister of State (MoS) for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh, informed that “Occurrence and filling up of vacant posts in various Ministries/Departments is a continuous process. Ministries/ Departments of the Central Government have been directed, from time to time, to fill up vacant posts in a time bound manner. Vacant posts have been filled up in mission mode, in Rozgar Mela launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 22nd October, 2022. 12 Rozgar Melas have been held at central level at 45-50 cities across the various States/ Union Territories.”

Similarly, in a reply to a question asked by Lok Sabha MP Hibi Eden about backlog vacancies for SCs/STs/OBCs in Central Government Ministries and Departments, MoS Jitendra Singh simply responded back that “Occurrence and filling of vacancies, along with backlog reserved vacancies, is a continuous process. Instructions have been issued to all Ministries/Departments of the Central Government to constitute an In-House Committee for identification of backlog reserved vacancies, to study the root cause of such vacancies, to initiate measures to remove the factors causing such vacancies and to fill them up through Special Recruitment Drives”.