PM Modi to launch employment fair, 75,000 to get appointment letters ahead of Diwali

“This will be a significant step forward towards fulfilling the continuous commitment of the Prime Minister to providing job opportunities for the youth and ensuring welfare of citizens,” the PMO statement said. The government is working towards filling up all existing vacancies in ministries and departments on a “mission mode”, it said.

The new employees will join at various levels in Group A and B (gazetted), Group B (non-gazetted) and Group C. The posts on which appointments are being made include the central armed force personnel, sub-inspectors, constables, lower-division clerks (LDC), steno, personal assistants (PA), income tax inspectors and multi-tasking staff (MTS), among others.

Respective ministries are carrying out the recruitments themselves or through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and Railway Recruitment Board.

The PM announced the decision to provide 10 lakh government jobs in June this year. The move is being viewed as a way to wrest the “unemployment” plank from the Opposition before the NDA government seeks a third term in 2024. The unemployment rate for youth (aged 15-29 years) in urban areas has been hovering at over 20 per cent for the last several quarters giving fodder to Opposition charges over the supposed lack of jobs. Unemployment was also one of the things the Congress has been highlighting in Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

With post-Covid economic recovery being a work in progress leading to tepid recruitment in the private sector, the move is being viewed as a strategic political shift in influencing the “jobs” narrative, through government jobs.

““The basis of New India is its youth power, to empower them Shri Modi is working continuously. Shri Modi’s directive to make 10 lakh recruitment in mission mode in all government departments and ministries in 1.5 years will bring new hope and confidence among the youth,” Home Minister Amit Shah had tweeted immediately after Modi’s announcement in June.

Official reports show that every fifth post was vacant in March 2019, just a year before the Covid-19 outbreak. As per the Annual Report on Pay and Allowances of the Central Government Employees for 2018-19, the total number of regular central government civilian employees in position (including Union Territories) was 31.43 lakh as on March 1, 2019, against the sanctioned strength of 40.66 lakh and approximately 22.69 per cent of the posts were vacant.

Government data show that the SSC and the UPSC advertised 1,85,734 and 27,764 posts respectively and recruited 1,74,744 and 24,836 candidates respectively in the five years between 2017-18 and 2021-22.