1 million govt jobs by 2024: PM Modi's order for hiring on 'mission mode'

Central govt depts, ministries told to identify vacancies at the earliest

With less than two years left for the next general elections, the Narendra Modi government has sprung into action to address one of the most talked-about problems in the country: Unemployment. The prime minister on Tuesday directed all central government ministries and departments to identify vacancies and recruit one million in one and a half years.

The decision comes amid the Opposition’s frequent criticism that the government has failed to create enough jobs even as unemployment remains a sore point in the economy, especially in the wake of Covid-19.

A large number of vacant posts in different government departments have often been flagged.

“PM Narendra Modi 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 the next 1.5 years,” the prime minister’s office tweeted on Tuesday.

At a media briefing later in the day, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said that all central government departments and ministries had been told to identify vacancies at the earliest and employ people on a priority basis.
 

According to the Seventh Pay Commission, the average intake of new recruits into the central government between 2006 and 2014 had been slightly over 100,000 each year. Official data is not available after that. The Commission had said that “the central government is at best a marginal source for employment generation. The quantum of intake of fresh personnel by the central government is an insignificant percentage of the total entrants in India’s labour force.”

The decision to fill up a million posts in the next 18 months means that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have something solid to counter the Opposition's criticism on unemployment in the next Lok Sabha polls, expected to be held in April-May in 2024.

Budget documents show that the total personnel strength of the central government was 3.46 million as of March 2022, as against the total sanctioned strength of 4.1 million according to the latest report of the Department of Expenditure on Pay and Allowances. This roughly leaves 640,000 vacancies for the government to fill.

During various Assembly polls, opposition parties have tried to corner the BJP over the issue of unemployment, but the saffron party has been successful in neutralising the criticism with its planks of welfarism, development and Hindutva. It has also consistently refuted the Opposition's charge on unemployment, arguing that its various programmes have led to a rise in entrepreneurship and overall employment generation.