Railways To Employ 1.4 Lakh More People Soon: Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw In Rajya Sabha

Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, Ashwini Vaishnaw said the Railways has provided 18,000 jobs this year so far.

Indian Railways has been a major contributor in providing employment to people in the country

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The Indian Railways will employ 1.4 lakh more people and the process of recruiting them has already begun, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Rajya Sabha on Friday. Vaishnaw said the recruitment drive was part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of providing 10 lakh jobs, PTI reported.

"The process for recruitment of 1.40 lakh employment opportunities is on and very soon they will be completed soon," Vaishnaw said.

Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, Vaishnaw said the Railways has provided 18,000 jobs this year so far, PTI reported.

Highlighting that the Indian Railways has been a major contributor in providing employment to people in the country, Vaishnaw said between 2014 and 2022, 3,50,204 people were recruited. 

"Between 2014 to 2022, the Indian Railways has provided employment to 3,50,204 people. In this year alone, as many as 18,000 employment opportunities have been provided so far," the minister said.

"There are people who make announcements of 10,000 or 20,000 and make big announcements about that, but here we have provided so many actual appointments," he told the Rajya Sabha members.

Vaishnaw said as Railways was a large organisation, occurrence of vacancies was an ongoing process due to retirement, resignation, death etc. and filling up of such posts was a continuous process.

"During the process, vacancies may arise and these are filled subsequently. During the last two years, 10,189 candidates have been recruited. Presently, recruitment/filling up of vacancies in direct recruitment grade for approximately 1,59,062 posts is at various stages," he said.

"In addition to filling up of regular vacancies, employment is also generated through outsourcing of non-core activities and execution of projects which are not permanent in nature, through contracting agencies," the minister further said.

Recently, about 1.15 crore applicants applied for Railway Grade IV jobs, which include track maintainers, assistants in hospitals, loco shed, depot and pointsman, among other Level 1 category.

(With PTI inputs)