PMO,
President House, DOPT hit hard by staff crunch
The Prime Minister’s Office, President House, Cabinet
Secretariat and other ministries & departments of the Central government
are facing acute manpower shortage. If the PMO is facing 30% manpower shortage,
the President’s House has 24% less work force. The DOPT which is directly under
the PMO faces a 22% staff shortage. It’s the same story in the Cabinet Secretariat
and other ministries. The UPSC, the Centre’s key recruiting body, has 35%
less manpower. The department of Science & Technology is facing its worst with
a 70% shortage in vacancies. It has 3899 staff though sanctioned strength is
12442.
It is surprising that the number of vacancies have been rising
at all levels year after year. If the number of vacancies at the Centre was
4.12 lakhs as on March 31, 2016, it rose to 9,79,327 as on March 1, 2021.
Instead of filling government jobs since 2016, the number of vacant posts
doubled. In a span of five years, the number of vacant posts grew by 5,67,327
taking the tally to nearly ten lakhs. It would be interesting to note that of
the total gazette and non-gazette posts in the central government is 40.35
lakhs and only 30.55 lakhs employees are in place. Experts say continuous
dwindling manpower is part of Modi’s plan of “Minimum government Maximum
governance.” In a way, the government is saving Rs 19,000 crore annually by not
filling vacant posts.
The data above does not include
vacancies in defense forces, Public Sector Undertakings including banks &
financial institutions, tribunals & commissions and other bodies. The
government has, however, claimed that it created 2 crores incremental jobs
every year under the MUDRA yojana during the past three years. The latest
Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data to be released shortly will
give a detailed account of job creation. When asked, the DoPT said, “steps have
been taken for streamlining direct recruitment process by doing away with
interviews for lower level posts, introduction of computer based examinations
and simplification of pre-appointment procedures.
