One-third posts in Culture Ministry are vacant: Govt

As many as forty four organisations under the Culture Ministry are facing acute shortage of manpower as about one-third of the sanctioned posts are vacant, Lok Sabha was informed today.
Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said there are 44 organisations under his ministry which have 6,444 posts filled up against the sanctioned strength of 9,423 vacancies.
Some of the organisations facing significant manpower shortage include Archaeological Survey of India with 1,658 posts filled up against a sanctioned strength of 2,279, National Museum with 149 post filled against 268 while National Gallery of Modern Art, Benguluru having filled just one post out of 34 sanctioned posts, according to the data provided by the Minister.

Other organisations having staff crunch include Indian Museum which had 131 post filled against sanction strength of 212, Anthropological Survey of India with 278 against 569.
National Archives of India, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi Public Library and National Library also had significant manpower shortage.
Filling up of vacancies is a regular process in the organisations, Sharma said, adding that necessary steps are also taken to ensure that the functioning of the organisations is not affected for want of adequate manpower.

"Periodical review of vacancies in all cadres resulting from retirement, resignation, death etc is carried out and suitable action for filled up of vacancies is taken up as per rules and procedures," he added.

In a reply to another question, he said Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has taken steps to restructure its cadre, both technical and non-technical and posts in the Bhubaneswar office have also been covered in the restructuring.
He said necessary facilities have been provided to all laboratories as per requirement, including Bhubaneswar office.
To a query on non-antiquity certificate, Sharma said there is an expert advisory committee in each ASI circle for issue of the certificate to handicraft exporters.
The committee meets regularly as and when requests for issue of certificates are received, he added.