Union govt failing to fill up posts reserved for OBCs

Representation of OBCs in central government jobs is far short of the percentage of seats reserved for them, the Union government has admitted. The OBC quota in central government jobs stands at 27%, but the actual representation of central government employees hailing from OBCs stands at 21.57%.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh, admitted this on Wednesday in a reply to a question asked in the Lok Sabha. This data was from 1 January, 2016.

Singh tried to explain this shortfall by attributing it to reservation for OBCs having started only in September, 1993. He also made an attempt to portray that things are moving in a positive number because even the latest numbers are significantly higher than the situation earlier.

According to Singh, representation of OBCs as on 1 January, 2012 was only 16.55%.

This data has been compiled on the basis of information received from 77 central government ministries/departments, including their attached/ subordinate offices.

Interestingly, Singh has claimed in the reply that the representation of SCs and STs in central government jobs is not just adequate but more than the quota limit. For SCs, reservation stands at 15%, but their representation as on 1 January, 2016 stands at 17.49%.

For STs, reservation stands at 7.5%, but their representation stands at 8.47%.

There is also a backlog of large number of seats reserved for these categories lying vacant. Singh said 10 ministries/departments having more than 90% of the employees in central government have reported 92,589 backlog vacancies for SCs, STs and OBCs, as on 31 December, 2016.

Out of these, 63,876 vacancies were filled up between 1 April, 2012 and 31 December, 2016.

However, as on 1 January, 2017, 28,713 vacancies in all three categories remained unfilled. Singh also said the Department of Personnel & Training has asked all ministries/departments to set up an in-house Committee to identify such vacancies, find out the root-cause, take steps to fill them up through Special Recruitment Drive.