Railways Minister Piyush Goyal announced on Wednesday, January 23, that he plans on creating at least four lakh more jobs. Currently, 1.32 lakh seats are still vacant and at least one lakh employees will retire in the next two years.
"Last year we undertook the recruitment process for over 1.51 lakh posts, leaving 1.31 lakh posts vacant. And in the coming two years, about 99,000 posts would lie vacant as 53,000 and 46,000 railway employees would retire in 2019 and 2020 respectively," Goyal said at a press conference on Wednesday.
He also indicated that the 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections will also kick in soon.
Goyal, who took up the Finance Minister portfolio due to Arun Jaitley's health issues, addressed a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday where he made the announcement.
During the press conference, Goyal said "We are taking steps in advance to fulfil the vacancies that will get vacant after the retirement of 1 lakh employees in two years. These jobs will be provided without any change in the reservation meant for backward classes and physically challenged. Also, a 10 per cent reservation will be given to economically weaker sections of the general class."
He added that even after filling the current vacancies, there will still be 1,32,000 open jobs in the railways.
The Railways Minister plans on opening 1,31,328 posts between February and March this year. Out of this, 19,715 posts will be reserved for Scheduled Castes, 9,857 posts for Scheduled Tribes and 35,485 posts will be reserved for other backward castes. 13,100 jobs will be reserved for the economically weaker sections.
"We will soon be inviting tenders for appointing technical and other back-end operators to fill up 132,000 vacancies. Moreover, the promised reservation for economically weaker sections of society will be applicable in the coming recruitment," Goyal added.
During the press conference, Goyal said that routes of 22 train services in the country will be extended. The services include Rourkela-Koraput Express will now go to Jagdalpur. Jaipur-Kamakhya Express has been extended till Udaipur, Secunderabad-Tandur has been extended to Chitapur and Bandra-Patna Express (weekly) has been extended till Saharsa.
