NEW DELHI: At a time when the Modi government is constantly under attack by the Opposition on the issue of unemployment, the Indian Railways, country’s largest employer, has abolished more than 92,000 posts of various categories between 2018-19 and 2021-22 financial years. Notably, despite the abolition of such a large number of posts, the railways still has around 2.98 lakh vacant posts.
Arguing that the creation and surrender of posts was an ongoing process based on the workload, the railways admitted that the highest number of 31,275 posts were abloshed in the 2019-20 financial year across all the 17 zones.
“The Izzatnagar division has surrendered the highest number of 1,430 posts compared to other divisions during these financial years,” a railway official said, adding that Varanasi division was on the second position in terms of surrendering the posts. The Lucknow division had surrendered 1,151 posts under various categories.
Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw during last Parliament session had admitted that more than 92,000 posts were abolished between 2018-19 and 2021-22. According to official documents, a total of 92,090 posts, including 23,366 in 2018-19, 31,275 in 2029-22, 27,477 in 2020-21 and 9,972 in 2021-22 posts were either abolished at both zonal and divisional levels. In 2018-19, 3,296 posts highest among all zones — were abolished in the Northern Eastern zone, followed by 3,221 in the Northern Railway, 1,920 in East Central, 1,735 in Eastern Railway, 1,621 in Central Railway, 1,514 in Western Railway and other zones.
Similarly, during 2019-20, the North Eastern Railway had abolished the highest number of 4,250 posts, followed by 4,034 posts in Northern Railway, 3,245 in Central Railway, 2,356 in East Coast Railway and others, citing reduced workload as the reason. During 2021-22, as many as 3,227 posts were abolished in the Northern Railway, followed by 3,136 in East Central Railway, 3,001 in Eastern Railway, 2,944 in Northeast Frontier Railway, 2,592 in Southern
Railway and rest in other zones and divisions.