"The Special Recruitment Drive, 2008, was reviewed and the government had re-launched the drive on July 26, 2011 and all central ministries or departments were requested to fill up the backlog reserved vacancies by March 31, 2012...All ministries or departments have also been asked to submit the status of filling up of the post through the drive," Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
According to an official data updated till December 2010, there were a total of 59,809 backlog reserved vacancies for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes and those with disabilities.
"Some reserved vacancies remain vacant for reasons like non-availability of suitable candidates, gap between arising of a vacancy and its filling up etc. It may, therefore, be not possible to fix any time line for filling up of all reserved vacancies. However, all efforts are being made to fill up the backlog reserved vacancies," the minister said.
