Central government to hire 2.8 lakh staff in a year, police, I-T and customs to get lions share
New
Delhi: The size of the central government, particularly police and tax
officials, is likely to grow with the Centre’s Budget providing for the
recruitment of around 2.80 lakh more staff.
Of this number, more
than 1.80 lakh would be recruits to departments of police, income tax,
customs and central excise. As of March 2016, the central government had
32.84 lakh staff across 55 departments and ministries, including 13.31
lakh in railways, but excluding defence forces. This is projected to
rise to 35.67 lakh by March 2018 if the recruitment goal is achieved.
Strengthening
enforcement agencies seems a priority with budgetary allocations made
for expansion of police forces (central paramilitary and Delhi Police),
taking their strength from 10.07 lakh to 11.13 lakh by March 2018. The
Centre in its Budget has provided for the recruitment of around 2.80
lakh more staff. The income tax department, the agency involved in the
drive against black money post-demonetisation, is set to expand from the
existing strength of 46,000 to 80,000 by March 2018.
Similarly ,
customs and excise department, which will implement the ambitious goods
and services tax regime, will get additional manpower of over 41,000.The
current strength of 50,600 for customs and excise staff is to go up to
91,700. A review of the
estimated strength of establishment in
the Budget annexures indicates no change in the manpower of railways,
the single largest employer (13.31 lakh) other than defence, in the
three years till 2018.
Departments of space, atomic energy ,
cabinet secretariat and the ministries of information and broadcasting
and external affairs are some others where sanctioned strength has gone
up significantly.
The government had projected to increase its
manpower in 2016 by 1.88 lakh but failed to make fresh recruitments in
I-T, customs and central excise departments.This led to an erosion in
the employee base by at least 21,000 over the strength in 2015. People
superannuating far exceeded new employees.
PM Narendra Modi's
interest in foreign policy has translated into a significant jump in the
strength of the foreign ministry where the government has decided to
add over 2,000 employees -up from 9,294 in 2016 to 11,403 in 2018. The
I&B ministry , too, has increased its sanctioned strength from 4,012
two years ago to 6,258 in 2018.The cabinet secretariat has been
strengthened with manpower to go up from 921 to 1,218 by next year.
TNN
