Over 11,000 posts vacant for want of eligible candidates: Govt

New Delhi, May 24:The govt approved a special recruitment drive launched to fill up backlog in reserved vacancies and noted that over 11,000 promotional posts belonging to such classes were lying vacant due to non-availability of eligible candidates.

The drive was first launched in 2008. Following a large number of vacancies, the drive was re-launched in July, 2011 by Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy.

All ministries were then asked to make concerted efforts to ensure that the remaining backlog reserved vacancies of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) were filled up by 31st March 2012.

The Cabinet, which was chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was apprised about the outcome of the drive carried out by the government during its meeting on Thursday.

As many as 75,522 backlog vacancies--44,427 in the direct recruitment quota and 31,095 in the promotion quota--were identified during the drive.

"Of the total of 31,095 backlog vacancies in the promotion quota, there are 11,347 vacancies (SCs 4,239 and STs 7,106) for which eligible candidates are not available even in the extended zone of consideration. Therefore, it has not been found possible to fill up these vacancies," a press release issued on Thursday said.

Out of the remaining 19,748 vacancies in the promotion quota, 19,446 vacancies have been filled up so far, it said.

After excluding the vacancies for which candidates are not available, achievement of the drive in respect of the promotion quota is 98.47 percent, the release said.

"Of the 44,427 backlog vacancies in the direct recruitment quota, 28,588 have been filled up so far. The success rate in direct recruitment quota is therefore 64.35 per cent," it added.