Railways recruiting people for over 2.94 lakh vacancies: Govt

New Delhi: More than 2.98 lakh positions were vacant at Railways as on June 1 this year and recruitment process is going on for over 2.94 lakh employees, according to the government.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday told the Lok Sabha that more than 4.61 lakh people were recruited in Railways over the last decade. Noting that filling up of vacancies is an ongoing process, Goyal said cadre strength is decided after taking into consideration various factors, including leave reserves and trainee reserves.

"The number of employees were 16,54,985 in 1991 and 12,48,101 in 2019. However, this has not affected the service of Railways," Goyal said in a written reply. Vacancies are filled through Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and Railway Recruitment Cells (RRCs). As per data provided in the written reply, there were 2,98,574 vacancies across A, B, C and erstwhile D categories at the Railways as on June 1, 2019.

The process for recruitment of 2,94,420 employees is going on. In 2018-19, action was initiated to fill up 2,94,420 vacancies. "Examinations have been held for 1,51,843 posts and will be held for 1,42,577 posts in 2019-20, for which employment notification were issued in 2019, duly taking the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota into account," Goyal said.

According to him, output and quality of service depends not only on workforce but also on the extent of use of technology and automation of systems. "Therefore, it is not correct to correlate the quality of service with employee strength," Goyal said.