NEW DELHI: Amid all the efforts being made by the Central government for job creation ahead of general elections in 2024, the country’s national transporter - the Indian Railways continues to function with the highest number of posts lying vacant. More than 3.15 lakh gazetted and non-gazetted posts across 18 zones as of this year’s March 31 are lying vacant in the Indian Railways.
As per the data of the railway ministry, as on February 1, the total number of vacant posts increased by 21,837 bringing the total tally to 3,15,780 this year in gazetted and non-gazetted categories. Non-gazetted posts include a range of employment categories, from engineers and technicians to clerks, station masters and ticket collectors.
According to the official data, available with this newspaper, as on date, 2,885 gazetted posts are vacant under 18 zones in addition to 3,12,9895 non-gazetted vacant posts. Similarly, total backlog vacancies of 18,670 exist in Scheduled Caste, Schedule Tribe and OBC categories.
As on January 1 this year, the backlog vacancies of 6,112 in SC, 5113 in ST and 7427 in OBC categories exist in the railways. Sources added that the highest number of 38,754 vacancies is in Northern Railways, followed by 36,476 in Western Railways, 30,141 in Eastern Railways, and 28,650 in Central Railways and rest in other zones.
A senior railway official said that vacancies continue to go and down in the railway with retirements of employees taking place every year.“As data shows, 1,41,886 railway employees from various categories retried in the last three years also. Year-wise speaking, 50,051 employees retired in 2019-20, 46,988 in 2020-21 and 44,847 in 2021-22. The railway is working to fill up the vacant posts continuously, ” said an official source. A total of 1,03,769 vacancies have been notified for recruitment in Pay Level 1(erstwhile Group-D) in addition to 330 indent places on UPSC for direct recruitment in Group A in Indian Railways in 2022 and 2023.