New Delhi: More than 3.15 lakh gazetted and non-gazetted posts across 18 zones as of this year’s March 31 are lying vacant in the Indian Railways, the New Indian Express reported.
According to railway ministry data, as on February 1, the total number of vacant posts increased by 21,837 this year in both gazetted and non-gazetted categories. Now the total number of vacant posts in the railways stands at 3,15,780.
The non-gazetted posts include jobs for engineers, technicians, clerks, station masters, ticket collectors, among others.
The newspaper, citing official data, said 2,885 gazetted posts are vacant and 3,12,9895 non-gazetted are vacant under 18 zones.
In addition, in the Scheduled Caste, Schedule Tribe and OBC categories, there are at least 18,670 vacancies.
As on January 1, 2023, there are 6,112 vacancies in the SC category, 5,113 in ST and 7,427 in OBC in the railways.
Sources told the daily that the highest number of 38,754 vacancies is in Northern Railways, followed by 36,476 in Western Railways, 30,141 in Eastern Railways, and 28,650 in Central Railways and rest in other zones.
A senior railway official told the newspaper that vacancies continue to go and down in the railway with retirements of employees taking place every year.
“As data shows, 1,41,886 railway employees from various categories retried in the last three years also. Year-wise speaking, 50,051 employees retired in 2019-20, 46,988 in 2020-21 and 44,847 in 2021-22. The railways is working to fill up the vacant posts continuously,” the official source quoted above told the daily.