Filling Group ‘B’ and ‘C’ vacancies to be focus of government’s hiring plan

Postings in government departments are classified into 4 broad categories — Groups A, B, C and D — depending on the rank, status and the degree of the level of responsibility attached.

The Centre’s plan to hire 1 million people over the next one-and-a-half years to fill vacancies in government departments is focused on fulfilling openings in Group ‘B’ and Group ‘C’ services, officials in the department of training and personnel (DoPT) have told HT.

Filling Group ‘B’ and ‘C’ vacancies to be focus of government’s hiring plan

Postings in government departments are classified into 4 broad categories — Groups A, B, C and D — depending on the rank, status and the degree of the level of responsibility attached.

According to DoPT data submitted in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, there are currently 979,327 vacancies in government departments across the country. Of these, 23,454 are in Group A, 118,807 are in Group B and 836,936 are in Group C.

Replying to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Union minister of state Jitendra Singh, said: “Creation and filling up of posts in the Central Government is the responsibility of the concerned Ministry/Department and it is a continuous process. Vacancies in various Ministries/Departments of the Central Government, their attached/subordinate offices arise due to retirement, promotion, resignation, death etc. All Ministries/Departments of the Central Government have been asked to take action in a mission mode for filling up of vacant posts in a time bound manner.”

According to an official familiar with the matter, an inter-ministerial task force was set up last week by DoPT, to fill the vacancies in government departments.

“The action plan will not include job creation, but actually filling of vacancies across the government,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “Most of the posts at the senior-level are staffed, so the hiring will be for Group B and Group C jobs,” the official added.

After conducting a review of human resource departments across ministries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in June announced that the government would induct 1 million people over the next year-and-a-half in “mission mode” to fill up vacancies in the Central government.

“PM @narendramodi reviewed the status of Human Resources in all departments and ministries and instructed that recruitment of 10 lakh people be done by the Government in mission mode in next 1.5 years,” a tweet on the official handle of the Prime Minister’s Office said on June 14.

Group ‘A’ posts in government departments carry higher administrative and executive responsibilities and include senior management positions in ministries/departments and field organisations. The middle and junior levels of Group ‘A’ along with Group ‘B’ levels constitute middle management. Group ‘C’ posts perform supervisory as well as operative tasks and render clerical assistance in ministries and field organisations, whereas Group ‘D’ posts are meant for carrying out routine duties.

In the last three years, 13,238 people were hired by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), 100,330 people were hired through the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and 151,900 people were recruited by the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), according to DoPT. The three agencies are the major recruiters for the government.

A further break down of the UPSC’s numbers shows that in 2018-19, 4,399 people were hired, in 2019.20, 5,230 people, and in 2020-21, 3,609.

SSC meanwhile hired 16,748 people in 2018-19; 14,691 in 2019-20; and 68,891 in 2020-21.