New Delhi (22.04.2022): Two days after Prime Minister's interaction with Union Secretaries (02.04.2022), the Cabinet Secretariat has shot letters to the heads of various departments and ministries asking them to initiate immediate steps to fill the existing vacancies against sanctioned posts.

While interacting with Union Secretaries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed serious concerns over continuing vacancies in various departments.

Reportedly, PM had emphasized that employment generation should be given a high priority and should be the focus of Government interventions across public and private sectors. Every industry/ Department should immediately take steps to fill the existing vacancies against sanctioned posts.

As a matter of fact, there is a shortage of officers at various grades under the Central Secretariat Service (CSS) and Central Secretariat Stenographers' Service (CSSS) in various departments, thus adversely impacting the functioning of several Departments and hampering timelines and effectiveness in providing the essential services to the public and ensuring good governance - one of the poll promises of NDA Govt since 2014.

Take a look at the vacancies against the aforementioned services (CSS & CSSS). All put together, those in the know of the affairs say, hundreds and hundreds of posts are vacant in ministries and departments at various levels namely; Senior Private Secretary/Principal Staff Officer, Under Secretary, Principal Private Secretary, Section Officers, Private Secretary, Assistant Section Officers, Personnel Assistant, Stenographer ‘D’, Senior Secretariat Assistant and Junior Secretariat Assistant.

In the last few days, many Union Secretaries have started responding to the Cabinet Secretariat’s letter along with the details of sanctioned strength and vacancies in respective departments & ministries at various levels as aforementioned.

For example, the Department of Food and Public Distribution has written a letter to the Secretary, DoP&T requesting the filling up of vacant posts; details of the vacancies are like this:-

Senior Private Secretary/Principal Staff Officer 3 sanctioned posts with one vacancy; Under Secretary 31 sanctioned posts with 3 vacancies; Principal Private Secretary 13 sanctioned posts with one vacancy; Section Officers 59 sanctioned posts with 26 vacancies; Private Secretary 29 sanctioned posts with 13 vacancies; Assistant Section Officers 122 sanctioned posts with 9 vacancies; Personnel Assistant with 21 sanctioned post with 21 vacancies; Stenographer ‘D’  26 sanctioned post with 6 vacancies; Senior Secretariat Assistant 8 sanctioned post with 2 vacancies; and  Junior Secretariat Assistant 12 sanctioned posts with  6 vacancies.

It may be underlined that the Central Secretariat comprises of mainly three services i.e. Central Secretariat Service (CSS), Central Secretariat Stenographer Service (CSSS) and Central Secretariat Clerical Service (CSCS) is having hundreds of vacancies.

The PM's direction has provided the much-needed solace to CSS & CSSS cadre officers in view of their long-pending attempts at seeking decision-maker's attention to the career prospects and long-pending issue of promotion of CSS Cadre. They had met Dr. Jitendra Singh, MoS for Personnel & PMO, seeking his intervention and getting them justice. Though their promotional issues, subject to judicial outcomes, are yet to be addressed it seems that their efforts are likely to bear fruits. A section of the CSS cadre looks at the recent development (filling up vacancies with urgency) and presumes that their collective efforts have not gone unheard and their promotion issues may soon gather momentum in the backdrop of PM’s latest direction to Union Secretaries.