New Delhi For the third consecutive year, one in four civilian posts in the Central Government was vacant as of March 1, 2023, according to the latest Finance Ministry report on pay and allowances. Moreover, the number of sanctioned posts is declining.
The report shows that the total sanctioned strength of civilian employees in central government (including UT) was over 40 lakhs as of March 31, 2023, out of which over 9.7 lakhs or a little over 24 per cent was vacant. The maximum vacancy was observed in Group C (Non-Gazetted) category at over 33 per cent, while Group B (Gazetted) had the lowest vacant post, around 16 per cent,
The report has not mentioned any specific reason for the vacancies, but the delay in completing the recruitment process is believed to be an important factor. Posts are also not being filed in proportion to people getting retired, and many jobs are being outsourced to external agencies.
However, the government has always endeavoured to fill the posts. It also highlighted that with 13 editions of Rozgar Melas, appointment letters are being issued to recruits joining the central government. During the last mela on October 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi distributed more than 51,000 letters to newly appointed youth in government departments and organizations.
Big Employers
Five major Ministries/Departments—Railways, Defence (Civil), Home Affairs, Posts, and Revenue—cover almost 92 per cent of the total manpower.
Railways alone provides almost 4 out of 10 central government civilian jobs. According to the report, the number of its sanctioned posts as of March 1, 2023, was over 14.89 lakh. However, the number in position was around 11.73 lakh, which means over 3 lakh posts are vacant. Home Affairs has a sanctioned strength of over 11.12 lakh, while the number in position was over 9.84 lakh, which means around 1.28 lakh posts were vacant.
Defence (Civilian) has over 5.77 lakh sanctioned posts, of which 3.33 lakh are occupiAed with 2.44 lakh vacancies. Another big employer is the Department of Post, where the sanctioned posts and number of positions are 2.50 lakh and 1.77 lakh, respectively, with around 73 lakhs. The last one in the top five is the Department of Revenue, with a sanctioned strength of 1.79 lakh, out of which over 1.06 lakh are filled with 73,000 vacancies.
Expenditure
The report also said that total expenditure on pay and allowance (excluding Productivity Linked Bonus, Ad-hoc Bonus, Honorarium, Encashment of Earned Leave and Travelling Allowances) for central government civilian employees rose over 7 per cent in Fiscal Year 2022-23 and reached over ₹2.75 lakh crore as against over ₹2.56 lakh crore of FY 22. Over 80 per cent of expenditure was incurred by just four Ministries – Railways, Defence (Civil), Home Affairs and Posts).