Amidst the below-par performance of the government in providing jobs and the unemployment rate all-time high in the last four decades, the labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar in Lok Sabha revealed that close to seven lakh government department and ministries posts were vacant till March 2018.
While it is unclear on why the government has not submitted the latest figures on the same for the financial year ending March 2019 to the parliament, Gangwar said that filling up of government posts remains the highest priority along with creating more jobs and enhancing the employability. The minister highlighted the employment figures while responding to a question asked by Congress MP Deepak Baij and BJP MP Darshana Jardosh.
Both the ministers had questioned the Centre on the number of vacancies available in the government department and the steps that the Centre is taking to fill them up.
Gangwar on the steps that the government is taking to fill the posts said that the recruitment is a continuous process and that states and Union Territories should own up their responsibility to fill up the vacant positions in their jurisdictions.
According to the department of expenditure, 6.84 lakh positions were not occupied in government departments and ministries across all levels of jobs as on March 1, 2018. The data revealed that against the sanctioned strength of 38.03 lakh posts, only 31.9 lakh seats were filled.
Gangwar stressing on the country’s largest job provider said that around 2.6 lakh jobs were vacant in the railway sector against a sanctioned strength of 15.08 lakh alone itself. After Railway, stood the civilian defence department where 1.87 lakh posts were not filled against the sanctioned strength of 5.85 lakh positions.
Another government sector which had a considerable amount of vacancies was home affairs which oversee appointments in paramilitary forces and Delhi Police. There were around seventy thousand vacancies against the sanctioned strength of 10.21 lakh positions.
Gangwar, however, said that reports stating India has the highest unemployment rate were misleading. Taking reference to the International Labour Organization (ILO) report, he said that India’s unemployment rate stood at 3.5% in comparison to 4.7 % in China and 4.2% in the Asia Pacific. He said, “India has the least unemployment rate in the world based on ILO report. India’s situation is better than in other countries, but we are not satisfied with it.”
In June, when asked about the high number of vacancies, Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said that the jobs in the central government are caused due to the retirement, death, and promotions. He also noted that filling of posts would be done based on recruitment rules.
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