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DGCA to hire 190 personnel: Centre tells Parliament
Naidu’s remark followed an HT report revealing DGCA has only 553 officials to oversee one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation sectors.
The government will recruit 190 personnel in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by the end of October this year, Union minister Ram Mohan Naidu told Parliament on Monday.
The civil aviation minister was responding to a question from Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Ashok Chavan in the Rajya Sabha on the steps being taken by the government to address the shortage of staff in the country’s aviation regulator in order to ensure passenger safety.
This comes a day after HT reported that DGCA was operating with just 553 officials while overseeing operations in one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. According to official documents, seen by HT, DGCA has 48% of its 1,063 technical posts vacant. Of these, 400 posts were sanctioned and added in 2022 but remain to be filled.
“We need to understand that creation of posts and recruitment of posts is a continuous process. We from the ministry are in continuous process discussions,” Naidu said in his response. “We recruited for 103 posts which was the highest number in the history of DGCA. This year we plan to recruit 190. By the end of October, we are going to recruit for 190 posts for DGCA.”
The Union minister termed the recruitment process as tough, citing the role of the regulator in ensuring safety of passengers. “These are very niche and technical posts. We do not have a huge pool…it is a very specific pool of people that we are trying to pick from. It is a very tough process of picking up the right people because they are going to be the regulators and take care of the safety,” Naidu said.
The recruitment process is “very rigorous”, he said, adding: “We are putting more pressure so that the timelines for the recruitment also come down. We are in the process of achieving 90% of the vacancies to be recruited.”
The development comes at a time of close scrutiny of Indian aviation safety following the crash of Air India Flight 171 that killed 260 people in June. The sector has been booming, with India becoming the third largest domestic market after the US and China post the pandemic.
HT had reported that the staffing crisis affects the regulator’s core functions at a time when India is attempting to improve its International Civil Aviation Organization safety rankings. Despite being the third largest domestic market by volume, the country ranks 48, albeit an improvement from 102 in 2018.
AAP lawmaker Raghav Chadha also raised the issue of DGCA being understaffed and underfunded, alleging the regulator lacks the autonomy it desperately needs.
“India’s civil aviation sector is booming but its regulator is cracking under pressure…Today, 55% of its technical posts lie vacant and these aren’t just numbers on paper. These are the very roles responsible for air safety inspections, pilot licensing, aircraft maintenance and certifying air-worthiness,” he said.
Calling it a crisis, and not a shortage, Chadha said that DGCA should be made autonomous like SEBI and TRAI. “In the skies, there is no margin for error,” he added.
