Over 8.72 lakh posts vacant in central govt departments: Minister

There were around 8.72 lakh vacant posts in different central government departments as on March 1, 2020, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said on Thursday in response to a Rajya Sabha question.

The sanctioned strength of all central government departments was 40,04,941 (as on March 1, 2020), of which 31,32,698 employees were in position then, he said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. “The total number of vacant posts as on March 1, 2020 was 8,72,243,” the minister noted.

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Giving details of the recruitments done by the three major recruiting agencies for the last five years, he said the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) recruited 25,267 candidates, the Staff Selection Commission 2,14,601 candidates and the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) recruited 2,04,945 candidates, from 2016-17 to 2020-21.

Source: Government data

As per the government data on the backlog of reserved vacancies, there were a total of 14,366 unfilled vacancies against the sanctioned vacancies of 28,245 in the Schedule Caste (SC) category as on January 1, 2020. The number of such vacancies in Schedule Tribe (ST) category is 12,612 and the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category is 15,088. These vacancies are across departments including posts, railways, defence production, financial services, housing and urban affairs.

As a response to a Rajya Sabha question regarding the number of vacant posts in the Union Education Ministry, and its subordinate offices, central universities and other educational/ technical/ management institutes, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed that of the 41,421 sanctioned teaching posts, 13,701 are vacant in central universities and other educational/ technical/ management institutes.

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Similarly, of the sanctioned 61,624 sanctioned non-teaching posts, 24945 are vacant in central universities and other educational/ technical/ management institutes. Whereas the number of sanctioned non-teaching posts in the Ministry of Education (Main Secretariat) is 1,072, of which 347 are lying vacant.

The number of people engaged through outsourcing at the Ministry of Education (Main Secretariat) is 141 and 17544 in central Universities and other educational/ technical /management institutes.