'Nearly 7L vacant posts in central govt departments'

There were nearly seven lakh vacant posts in different central government departments as on March 1 last year, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Of the total of 6,83,823 vacant posts, a total of 5,74,289 are in Group C, 89,638 in Group B and 19,896 in Group A category, as on March 1, 2018, according to a data given in a written reply by Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh.

Based on the vacancies reported by the user departments, the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) has started the recruitment process to fill up 1,05,338 posts during the year 2019-2020, he said.

During 2017-18, Centralised Employment Notifications (CENs) for 1,27,573 combined vacancies of various Group C and Level-1 posts were notified by the Ministry of Railways and Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs), for new and future vacancies to arise in two years time, Singh said.

Another five CENs covering 1,56,138 vacancies of various Group C and Level-1 posts were also issued in 2018-19, the minister said.

The department of posts has also conducted the examination and notified to fill up 19,522 vacancies, other than those to be filled up through SSC, in various grades, he said.

"Thus, recruitment process to fill up 4,08,591 vacancies by the SSC, RRBs and department of posts, is in progress," Singh said.

To reduce the recruitment cycle, recruiting agencies have switched over to computer-based online test, interview for non-gazetted posts has been discontinued effect from January 1, 2016, and the provisional appointment is being made pending verification of antecedents of the candidates, he said.

In another reply, the minister said there were backlog reserved vacancies for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

The Personnel Ministry monitors the progress in filling up of backlog reserved vacancies for SCs, STs and OBCs with ten ministries and departments, having more than 90 per cent of the employees in central government.

Out of these ten ministries and departments, six have informed that as on December 31, 2017, out of 13,968 backlog vacancies for SCs, 11,040 backlog vacancies for STs and 20,044 backlog vacancies for OBCs, 6,186 backlog vacancies for SCs, 4,137 backlog vacancies for STs and 9,185 backlog vacancies for OBCs were filled up, the minister said.

As on January 1, 2018, 7,782 backlog vacancies for SCs, 6,903 backlog vacancies for STs and 10,859 backlog vacancies for OBCs remained unfilled, he said.

"Besides the above six, three more ministries/departments have informed that as on December 31, 2018, out of 9,624 backlog vacancies for SCs, 8,659 backlog vacancies for STs and 7,293 backlog vacancies for OBCs, 7,911 backlog vacancies for SCs, 6,129 backlog vacancies for STs and 5,520 backlog vacancies for OBCs were filled up," Singh said.

As on January 1, 2019, 1,713 backlog vacancies for SCs, 2,530 backlog vacancies for STs and 1,773 backlog vacancies for OBCs remained unfilled, the minister said.