Lok Sabha Question No. 2237 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-02
Subject: Filling up Vacant Posts
Ministry: RAILWAYS
Asked by: Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, M. Selvaraj, Kaushalendra Kumar, P.R. Natarajan, Hibi Eden

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2237 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2023

## FILLING UP VACANT POSTS

2237. SHRIMATI KANIMOZHI KARUNANIDHI:

SHRI M. SELVARAJ:

SHRI KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR:

SHRI NATARAJAN P.R.:

SHRI HIBI EDEN:

Will the Minister of RAILWAYS be pleased to state:

- (a)   whether the Government is aware of the severe staff shortage faced by the Indian Railways, with several gazetted and more than  3.12  lakh  non-gazetted  posts  lying  vacant  across  18 zones and if so, the details thereof, zone/division-wise:
- (b) whether the Railways has taken any measures to address the shortage of staff in all the zones including Ernakulam, Kerala and  thereby  prevent  potential  train  accidents  and  disasters and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  fixed  a  timeline  or  target  for filling all the vacant posts and if so, the details thereof and if not,  the  number  of  gazetted/non-gazetted  posts  lying  vacant across the country, zone-wise;
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  implemented  any  measures  to expedite the recruitment process and ensure timely appointments and if so, the steps taken in this regard;
- (e) whether  the  inability  to  fill  the  posts  has  led  to  employees working over-time of upto 16 hours at a stretch without rest and food and if so, the facts thereof;
- (f) whether the Government has identified specific challenges in the  recruitment  to  the  vacant  posts  and  if  so,  the  plan envisaged to address these challenges;

(g) the number of employees engaged by the Railways on contract basis during the last five years, year/zone/division-wise; and whether  permanent  railway  personnel  are  more  responsible and  accountable  towards  their  duties  in  comparison  to  the contractual staff which affects the Railways operating system

(h) and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI ASHWINI VAISHNAW)

(a) to (h) : A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (h)  OF UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2237 BY SHRIMATI KANIMOZHI KARUNANIDHI, SHRI M. SELVARAJ, SHRI KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR, SHRI NATARAJAN P.R. AND SHRI HIBI EDEN TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK  SABHA  ON  02.08.2023  REGARDING  FILLING  UP  VACANT POSTS

(a) to (f) : The  details of total vacancies, zone-wise in Indian Railways as on 01.07.2023 are as under:

| Zonal Railway                  |   Gazetted |   Non-gazetted |
|--------------------------------|------------|----------------|
| CR                             |        103 |          25281 |
| ECOR                           |         94 |           8114 |
| ECR                            |        187 |          12812 |
| ER                             |        216 |          29869 |
| MR                             |         37 |            993 |
| NCR                            |        135 |          15962 |
| NER                            |         79 |          12830 |
| NFR                            |        171 |          12365 |
| NR                             |        168 |          32468 |
| NWR                            |        108 |           9813 |
| SCR                            |         77 |          10338 |
| SECR                           |         83 |           7796 |
| SER                            |        172 |          13432 |
| SR                             |        121 |          15240 |
| SWR                            |         54 |           4843 |
| WCR                            |         73 |          11142 |
| WR                             |        192 |          25597 |
| Production units & other units |        610 |          12338 |
| Total                          |       2680 |         261233 |

The vacancies of Operational Safety categories are 53,178.

Occurrence and filling  up  of  vacancies  are  continuous  process  on Indian Railways considering its size, spatial distribution and criticality  of  operation.  The  vacancies  are  filled  up  primarily  by placement of indents by Railways with Recruitment agencies as per operational requirements.

Direct  recruitment  to  Group  'A'  Services  on  Indian  Railways  is mainly  done  by  UPSC.  Every  year  Indent  is  placed  on  UPSC  and DoPT.

A  massive  recruitment  exercise  has  been  completed  recently  for empanelling  1,39,050  candidates  by  conducting  Computer  Based Test (CBT) of approximately 2.37 crore candidates.

CBT for Centralized Employment Notification (CEN) 01/2019 for NonTechnical Popular Categories (NTPC) was conducted for 1.26 crore candidates  in  133  shifts  in  68  days  across  211  cities  and  726 centres  in  15  languages.  Similarly,  CBT  for  CEN-RRC  01/2019 (Level-1) was conducted for 1.11 crore candidates in 99 shifts in 33 days across 191 cities and 551 centres in 15 languages.

During period from 01.04.2022 till  30.06.2023, 1,36,773 candidates have  been  empanelled  against  various  Group  'C'  posts  (including Level 1). This includes 1,11,728*  safety category posts.

All efforts are being made to fill up vacancies in Southern Railway including  Thiruvananthapuram Division and in units/offices  located at Ernakulam. 3361 candidates have been empanelled for appointment  to  Group  'C'  (excluding  Level-1)  posts  in  Southern Railway. 8514 candidates have been empanelled for appointment to Level-1 posts in Southern Railway.

Vacancies  are  being  filled  up  in  a  regular  manner  either  through direct  recruitment  or  promotion.  No  such  instance  of  employees working up to 16 hours at a stretch without rest and food has come to notice.

(g) : The number of contractual staff engaged in railway during last five years is as under :

| Zonal   |   Year-wise data |   Year-wise data |   Year-wise data |   Year-wise data |   Year-wise data |
|---------|------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------|
| Railway |             2018 |             2019 |             2020 |             2021 |             2022 |
| CR      |              441 |              660 |              645 |              468 |              490 |
| ECOR    |              252 |              281 |              289 |              273 |              239 |
| ECR     |             1463 |             1160 |              829 |              727 |              578 |
| ER      |              309 |              352 |              424 |              584 |              348 |
| MR      |                6 |                4 |               13 |                1 |                1 |
| NCR     |              397 |              554 |              556 |              713 |              370 |
| NER     |             1788 |             1912 |              613 |              533 |              682 |
| NFR     |              559 |              176 |              190 |              176 |              168 |
| NR      |             3050 |             3149 |             3179 |             3298 |             3419 |
| NWR     |              227 |              243 |              277 |              197 |               91 |
| SCR     |              647 |              710 |              768 |              868 |              576 |
| SECR    |              150 |              155 |              159 |              205 |              164 |
| SER     |              111 |              247 |              320 |              190 |               73 |
| SR      |              160 |              328 |              521 |              141 |              106 |
| SWR     |              467 |              657 |              667 |              637 |              492 |
| WCR     |              222 |              215 |              313 |              341 |              228 |
| WR      |              482 |              610 |              874 |              731 |              337 |

(h) :  Duties are performed in Railways either by permanent Railway employees  or  by  contractual  employees  (few  activities  especially some  non-core  activities  /  activities  which  are  not  permanent  in nature) with proper monitoring of their duties by assigned Supervisors.

*Provisional

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