Govt to fill up over six lakh vacant posts

If the government drive gathers pace, more than six lakh vacancies in different central government departments can get filled up in the next few months. While experts believe this would temper the job crisis in the country, they wonder why the government has been keeping such large number of posts vacant.

The Centre has asked all departments under it to fill up existing vacancies in a time-bound manner. "… all the ministries/departments are requested to fill up the existing vacancies in the concerned ministries/departments, their attached and subordinate offices, in a time bound manner," the cabinet committee on investment and growth said in a directive issued to secretaries of all central government departments.

Over 6.83 lakh posts were lying vacant in different central government departments, according to a latest government data. The personnel ministry has also sought a report on action being taken to fill up the existing vacancies on monthly basis.

The first such should reach February 5.

“Filling up of vacant government jobs will provide some relief, though just six lakh jobs are not sufficient to ease the country’s job problem. But we need to know why these posts have been lying vacant. What was stopping the government from filling them – was it intention or lack of required skill. If skill is the issue, how are they going to get it overnight?” asked Rituparna Chakraborty, EVP and cofounder of TeamLease Services.

According to Aditya Narayan Misra, director and CEO of CIEL HR Services, probably the government would have been keeping the posts report it by vacant to keep the deficit under control or out of oversight.

“This would benefit in two ways. Out of the crores of aspirants who will be applying for the jobs at least six lakh will get employed. Government jobs are considered to be safe and secure from a socio-economic perspective and this will also boost the sentiments and consumption,” he said.

Ministries/departments and their attached and subordinate offices are also asked to report vacancy position with respect to direct recruitment posts to Union Public Service Commission and Staff Selection Commission for filling up of such direct recruitment vacancies in a timely manner.