Government seeks to clear backlog in filling up of reserved vacancies

The government has decided to set up a committee to make in-depth analysis of the reasons for backlog in filling up of reserved vacancies.

A 20-member committee headed by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Secretary will suggest measures to enhance the employability of reserved category candidates.

The committee members are from various Central Government Ministries, including Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Ministry of Railways, UPSC, SSC, Railway Recruitment Board etc.

The committee will submit its report within a period of three months from the date of its constitution.

The government had launched a Special Recruitment Drive (SRD) to fill up the backlog reserved vacancies of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in November, 2008.

Progress of the drive was reviewed in July, 2011 and it was decided to re-launch the drive so as to fill up the remaining identified backlog vacancies by 31st March, 2012. The progress of Special Recruitment Drive was reviewed by the government in May 2013. It was noted out of a total of 64,175 backlog vacancies (DR quota and Promotion quota) which could be filled up, 48,034 vacancies were filled up, indicating overall success rate of the Drive at about 75 percent.

The analysis of data and consultation with various ministries indicated that lack of finishing skills or interview skills, less availability of professionally qualified persons, less identification of posts for persons with disabilities, dearth of professionally qualified persons especially in hearing impaired category of disability etc. are some of the reasons for less employability of SCs, STs, OBCs and PWDs in the government sector.