Depts asked to work on ‘mission mode’ to achieve target in 1.5 yrs
In a mega push for job creation in the Government sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed various Government departments and ministries to recruit 10 lakh people in a “mission mode” in the next year and a half.
“PM Narendra Modi reviewed the status of the human resource in all departments and ministries and instructed that recruitment of 10 lakh people be done by the Government in a mission mode in the next 1.5 years,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a tweet.
Employment opportunities have shrunk in the last two years due to a slowdown in economic activities induced by Covid-19 and long-phases of lockdown among several other related factors, economic or otherwise.
Opposition parties have been critical of the Government and alleged that it has kept an estimated “two crore jobs” locked by not conducting recruitment in several Government sectors, including railways and the army.
The Government, which is looking at the Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh by the year-end and seven other States by next year, obviously has the 2024 general election in mind in addressing the unemployment crisis. The PM’s timeframe for the job creation will coincide with the timing of the next general elections.
The ruling BJP is increasingly conscious of the fact that the “Hindutva card” alone may not be enough to mobilise the youth which may turn restless for want of adequate job protection 18 months from now.
India requires to create at least nine crore new non-farm jobs by 2030 if it wants to stay ahead of the rising youth population, according to a 2020 report by McKinsey Global Institute.
Soon after the Prime Minister’s announcement, the Union Home Ministry came out with a decision to expedite 10 lakh recruitments in government departments.
“In line with instructions of PM @narendramodi to carry out 10 lakh recruitments in all GOI Depts and Ministries over a period of 1.5 yrs, Ministry of Home Affairs has initiated steps to fill up vacancies in Mission Mode,” a Home Ministry spokesperson said in a tweet.
Government officials concede that there has been scarcity of staff as over the years employees have retired many times over and recruitments have not been conducted.
The major ministries and departments like posts, defence, railways and revenue have the most vacancies. It is estimated that against nearly 15 lakh sanctioned posts in the railways, about 2.3 lakh posts are vacant.
The defence (civil) department has approximately 2.5 lakh vacancies against a sanctioned manpower of nearly 6.33 lakh workers. There are over 90,000 openings in the posts department, out of a total sanctioned strength of 2.67 lakh employees, and nearly 74,000 vacancies in the revenue department, out of a total sanctioned strength of 1.78 lakh personnel.
In the Ministry of Home Affairs, against 10.8 lakh sanctioned posts, nearly 1.3 lakh posts are reportedly vacant.
As per data provided by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate in India rose to 7.83 per cent in April from 7.60 per cent in March, according to a report by CMIE, though it also says that 8 million people joined the country’s workforce in April --- one of the largest surges since the beginning of the Covid19.
According to the latest annual report of the Department of Expenditure on Pay and Allowances, the total number of regular Central Government civilian employees in position (including in the Union territories) as on March 1, 2020, was 31.91 lakh as against the sanctioned strength of 40.78 lakh and approximately 21.75 per cent of the posts were vacant.
The report said almost 92 per cent of the total manpower is covered by five major ministries or departments --- railways, defence (civil), home affairs, posts and revenue.
Of the total strength of 31.33 lakh (excluding the Union territories), the percentage share of the railways is 40.55, home affairs 30.5, defence (civil) 12.31, posts 5.66, revenue 3.26 and all other ministries and departments 7.72.
The total expenditure on pay and allowances (excluding productivity-linked bonus or ad-hoc bonus, honorarium, encashment of earned leave and traveling allowance) for the regular Central Government civilian employees, including the employees of the Union Territories and missions, was Rs 2,25,744.7 crore in 2019-20 as compared to Rs 2,08,960.17 crore in 2018-19.
According to the report, against the sanctioned strength of 10.16 lakh in Central police forces, 9.05 lakh employees were in position as of March 1, 2020.
Interestingly, the Prime Minister’s announcement has been welcomed by BJP MP Varun Gandhi, the lone parliamentarian from the ruling party who has been regularly attacking the Centre for not filling up the Government posts despite rising unemployment in the country. “Thanks Prime Minister for understanding the pain of unemployed youths. We will have to take positive steps towards filling more than one crore sanctioned Government jobs. More speedy steps would be needed towards achieving the resolve of providing two crore jobs annually,” the BJP MP tweeted.
The Opposition, on its part, has reacted to the move as” too late too little.”
