Claims by
the Railway Ministry notwithstanding that it is working hard to fill vacancies,
more than three lakh vacancies existed as on December 1, 2022. It is
learnt that vacancies include gazetted and non-gazetted categories in various
departments of Railways including security and traffic divisions as well.
According to
the Railways, the precise number of vacancies stood at 3.11 lakhs. No time
frame has been set by the Railways as to when it will be able to fill these
vacancies. Interestingly, the Railways recruited 18,463 apprentices under
the apprenticeship program over the last five years. However, none of these
apprentices have been made permanent during this period. When asked whether
Railways is proposing to restart the Special Class Railway Apprenticeship
program as recommended by the Ministry of Finance, the ministry officials said
that “no such proposal is under consideration in the Ministry of Railways.”
Insiders in
the government say that Prime Minister Modi is keen to trim the size of the
workforce as technology is evolving fast and employees need to re-orient
themselves and be trained in a changed environment. The PM has constituted a
three-member task force under former
Infosys CEO SD Shibu Lal, to implement the PM's concept of 'Karmyogi' in the
bureaucracy. There are more than 10 lakh vacancies in the central
government including three lakhs in the Railways for the past several years.
This shows that the government is in no hurry to fill them either.
The details
of vacancies are as under:
Department
Vacancies Account 12455
Administration
4227
Civil 87654
Electrical
38096
Mechanical
64346
Medical 5193
Personnel
3944
Security
9068
Signal &
Telecommunication 14815
Store 8881
Traffic
Transportation 62264
Miscellaneous
578
Total vacancies:
311521
