As per a response to an RTI query regarding the job positions in various departments of the Indian Railways, it was revealed that there are more than 3.11 lakh posts out of 14,75,623 Group C posts and 3,018 out of the sanctioned 18,881 gazetted cadre positions are lying vacant.
As per the response to RTI query, a majority of the 39 railway zones and production units lack the required human resource.
The 3.11 lakh vacant Group C posts include jobs for Level 1 category staff, including tracks persons, points men, electrical works, signal and telecom assistants.
A leader of North Central Railway Employees Sangh (NCRES) said under the condition of anonymity that “A majority of the vacant Group C posts include that of engineers, technicians, clerks, guard/train manager, station masters, ticket collectors etc. This directly affects the railway operations on a daily basis”.
He further added that the issue of vacant posts remains a common issue in every permanent negotiator machinery (PNM) meeting with authorities at divisional, zonal, and at the level of railway headquarters.
He said that even the administrative officers are aware of the problems caused by the lack of the required workforce, but since the government is keen towards the privatisation of railways, they are not interested in hiring permanent staff.
As per the data, till September 15, 2022 five out of nine posts at the apex level of the ministry of railways were lying vacant.
Speaking about the vacant posts, then there are 23 out of 59 higher administrative group + posts, 44 out of 377 posts of higher administrative group, 77 out of 1,700 senior administrative-level posts that are vacant.
Department-wise Vacancies of Gazetted Officers Include:
| Department | No of Vacancies |
| Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) | 289 |
| Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) | 100 |
| Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE) | 260 |
| Indian Railway Service of Signal Engineers (IRSSE) | 154 |
| Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE) | 324 |
| Indian Railway Store Service (IRSS) | 43 |
| Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) | 215 |
| Indian Railway Health Service (IRHS) | 476 |
| Indian Railway Protection Force Service (IRPFS) | 145 |
| Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) | 321 |
| General Category | 113 |
| Miscellaneous | 578 |
The maximum vacancy of 1,274 out of 2,785 sanctioned posts was in the junior scale, followed by 926 vacancies out of 5,698 posts of Group B.
A senior Indian Railway Traffic Service officer said that “The high number of vacant posts especially of group C has been a subject of major concern affecting overall operations of the Indian Railways. The government is expanding the railway network, and high-speed rail operations have become a necessity. In order to upgrade operational safety and public convenience, the vacant posts must be filled in a time-bound manner.”
On the same lines, another manager said that “I have been working double shifts for up to 16 hours at a stretch because we don’t have staff to relieve us. I remain sleep-deprived and have not been able to take leave to spend time with family, because of staff crunch.”
Against the 28,705 vacant posts in the railways, the he National Railway Mazdoor Union (NRMU) of the Central Railways had staged a peaceful protest at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in the month of November last year.
Previously when this was raised in Rajya Sabha, then the Rail minister Ashwini Vaishnaw admitted to this glut of vacancies for all posts and said instructions had been issued to the zonal railway divisions for filling up the posts, especially in the safety and technical categories.
