CCIG asks departments to fill up 7 lakh vacant posts

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister-led Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth has directed the filling up of all existing vacancies in the central government, which have been pegged at nearly seven lakh as per the last disclosure before the Parliament.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in a circular to all secretaries of ministries on has passed on these directions of the panel, which comprises Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah among others. “The Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth in the meeting held on December 23, 2019 has directed to take time-bound action to fill up the existing vacancies in various ministries/departments,” stated the DoPT circular.

The government has sought a report with the action taken to fill up the existing vacancies by the fifth day of every month. “The first such report should reach this department latest by February 5, 2020,”stated the circular. There were nearly seven lakh vacancies in the central government as of 2018, and the total number employees has decreased since 2014 though the sanctioned number of posts has increased by almost 1.57 lakh, the government had told Parliament last November.


As per the data, nearly 31.18 lakh central government in position as on March 1, 2018 against a total sanctioned strength of over 38 lakh posts. While the sanctioned strength of the central government workforce has gone by 1.57 lakh posts since 2014 when it stood at 36.45 lakh, the number of employees in place in 2018 has decreased since 2014 when 32.23 lakh employees were in service, the data shows.

The biggest central government employer, Railways, had nearly 2.5 lakh vacancies as on March 1, 2018, the government data shows. About 1.9 lakh vacancies exist in the Defence (Civilian) sector, as per the data. Almost all ministries have vacancies.