New Delhi: Across 10 Union ministries, 50 per cent of the posts reserved for OBCs, SCs and STs are lying vacant, with the ministries of railways and home having the most number of unfilled positions.
According to a report submitted by the Standing Committee on Personnel and Law before Parliament Tuesday, both railways and home ministries have more than 50 per cent of unfilled reserved positions.
Of the 29,541 posts reserved for OBCs/SCs/STs in the railways ministry, 17,769 posts are vacant, while in the home ministry, of the 30,943 reserved posts, 17,493 are lying vacant.
In the home ministry, there are more SC and OBC posts that are lying vacant than those reserved for ST.
The finance ministry’s revenue department has 70 per cent of unfilled reserved posts — out of the 10,921 posts, 7,040 are unfilled.
In the housing and urban development ministry, out of 1,251 reserved vacancies, 555 are lying vacant.
The defence production department under the defence ministry has, however, filled up the maximum number of reserved posts — out of 20,648 vacancies, 16,621 are filled, the report stated.
The report also said that over 90 per cent of central government employees are employed with 16 ministries. Only 10 ministries shared their data on reserved posts. There are a total of 53 ministries.
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‘Backlog vacancies multiplying at an exponential rate’
The standing committee under the chairmanship of Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav stated in the report, “Backlog vacancies are multiplying at an exponential rate year after year so the committee recommended DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training) to instruct each ministry to designate an officer at appropriate level exclusively to fill reserved quota vacancy.”
The committee also expressed discontent over the six ministries, which didn’t furnish the data about their status of reserved vacancies.
The panel asked the DoPT to find out the reasons why the reserved posts weren’t filled at the appropriate time. In its response, which is also a part of the same report, the DoPT said every ministry has been told to designate an officer to fill the reserved vacancies on a priority basis.
The report also said the DoPT has written to all the ministries concerned to fill up the reserved vacancies through special recruitment drives.
Most vacancies in home ministry filled
The report stated that of the total 11 lakh sanctioned vacancies in the home ministry, including all the paramilitary forces, only 1,27,049 posts are lying vacant, but in case of reserved vacancies, over 50 per cent are unfilled.
Of the 2,65,173 total vacancies in BSF, 28,905 are vacant. In CISF, of the 1,63,313 posts, 24,161 are vacant, in CRPF 27,825 of the 3,24,723 posts are vacant and in SSB, out of 97,792 sanctioned posts, 18,633 posts are vacant.
“This is gross negligence on part of the officials concerned that these are sanctioned posts, where they only have to fill up the vacancies and forget about creating new employment,” Congress MP Jasbir Singh Gill, a member of the standing committee, told ThePrint.
“If we are not able to spend money dedicated to the welfare of the backward class, not able to fill up the vacancies, it shows a lack of interest and apathy towards needy persons,” he said.
(Edited by Debalina Dey)
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