Railway Minister admits operational safety understaffed in Railways in reply to MP Arora’s question

Ludhiana, July 30, 2023: Out of the total vacancies of 2,61,233 as on July 1, 2023, the vacancies of Operational Safety categories are 53,178, reveals Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw in reply to a question about vacant posts in Railways asked by MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora from Ludhiana. 

Giving this information here today, Arora said he had asked whether it is a fact that as on June 2023, 2.74 lakh Group `C’ posts were lying vacant in Railways, of which 1.7 lakh were in the safety category; and if so, the steps taken by Government to fill-up the vacancies in the wake of recent accidents and joblessness in the country.

While laying his statement on the table of the House the Minister for Railways stated that 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.

Further, the Minister stated that while 411624 candidates were empanelled during the period 2004-2014 for appointment in Indian Railways, 486031 candidates (Provisional) have been empanelled in the nine year period from April 1, 2014 to June 30, 2023. Out of the total vacancies of 2,61,233 as on July 1, 2023, the vacancies of Operational Safety categories are 53,178.

Arora said the Minister further stated that 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 Non-Technical 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. These flawless processes were carried out with absolute fairness and transparency, bringing to a stage of adding substantially to the Operational Safety categories in Indian Railways.

Meanwhile, Arora hoped that all vacancies specially those in Operational Safety categories will be filled as soon as possible to ensure accident-free operations of the Railways. He said there is a need that the government should fill-up all the vacant posts in Railways as there are a large number of the youth looking for government sector jobs specially in the Indian Railway, which is considered a better option to get good salary as per qualification and region.