Indian Railways all set to add 29,000 employees in the coming financial year, including 16,000 ex-servicemen.
Indian Railways, the largest employer in the country with a 1.4-million strong workforce, is all set to add another 29,000 employees in the course of the coming financial year.
Of this, the ministry will recruit 16,000 ex-servicemen by March-end. In her budget speech, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “As far as recruitments are concerned, the railways have a backlog of 10 years. There are 1.75 lakh vacancies, which would be filled in the due course of time.”
The ministry had announced a recruitment drive last year. Hiring for some 13,000 posts in the Railway Protection Force (RPF) is underway. As many as 1,200 ex-servicemen will be recruited for the same.
The announcement comes at a time when the Indian Railways have undertaken an additional expenditure of Rs 73,000 crore during the 11th Plan, on account of implementing the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.
In her speech, Banerjee admitted the railways were passing through a very difficult phase. She informed the implementation of the Pay Commission recommendations had increased the expenditure by an unprecedented 97 per cent.
In the coming financial year, the net working expenses are projected to increase by 10 per cent to Rs 73,650 crore, as against the current Rs 67,000 crore. The increase is primarily on account of higher payouts in staff cost, salaries, dearness allowance and pension charges.
At Rs 16,480 crore, as much as 22 per cent of the net working expenses would go towards pension dues in the coming financial year, both due to an increase in the number of pensioners as well as a rise in the dearness allowance.
Indian Railways project to earn Rs 1,09,393 crore from traffic and miscellaneous sources in 2011-12, an increase of 12.6 per cent.
Total expenditure is also set to go up to Rs 97,400 crore, 10.5 per cent higher than the Rs 88,129 crore expected to be spent this year.
