Over 3.12 lakh posts vacant on Indian Railway, real cause of poor safety

The Indian Railway faced a severe staff shortage, with 3.12 lakh non-gazetted posts vacant across the country, distributed across 18 zones as of December 01, 2022.

In response to a highlighted question in the Rajya Sabha, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, revealed this.

The shortage of railway officials becoming the real cause of poor safety.

The northern zone has the most open positions (38,754), followed by the western (30,476), eastern (30,141), and central zones (28,650).

In late November of last year, the Central Railway’s National Railway Mazdoor Union (NRMU) organised a peaceful demonstration in front of the Divisional Railway Manager’s office at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus after duty hours to express dissatisfaction with the vacancies.

In the Central Railway, nearly half of the 28,650 empty positions (14,203) are in the safety category, which largely includes operating and maintenance personnel such as inspectors of various types, drivers, train examiners, shunters, and others.

Engineers and technicians, as well as clerks, station masters, and ticket collectors, are examples of non-gazetted positions.

Employees have been working overtime due to the inability to fill positions. “I have been working double shifts for up to 16 hours at a stretch because we don’t have staff to relieve us,” claimed a 29-year-old employee at Mumbai’s Central Railway ticket booking office. Due to a staff shortage, I have been unable to take time off to study.” The employee is studying for his law examinations and intends to be transferred to the legal area if he passes.

Due to a staff shortage, many ticket booking windows have been rendered ineffective resulting in long lines and congestion. “As a result, ticketing services have been outsourced.” Private parties are employed by the railways and earn 3 on every 100 tickets sold outside the ticket-buying window. “The job should have been done by railway personnel in the first place,” remarked one NRMU employee.

According to the Ministry of Railways‘ official response tabled in parliament, “the occurrence and filling up of vacancies is a continuous process, and the vacancies are filled by way of promotion as well as placement of indents with recruiting agencies as per operational requirements.”

The response added that the recruiting process for 35,281 direct employment opportunities in Non-Technical Popular Categories has concluded.