‘Another jumla’: Chidambaram takes dig at Centre over railway jobs announcement

New Delhi, Jan 24: Senior Congress P Chidambaram on Thursday took a dig at Centre over announcement of four lakh jobs in Railways, calling it "another jumla" by the Narendra Modi government.

"Railways leave 2,82,976 posts vacant for nearly five years and suddenly wake up to say we will fill them in three months! Another jumla!" the Congress leader said in a tweet.

"The story is the same across many departments of the government. Vacant posts on one side, unemployed youth on the other," he added.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal had on Wednesday said that the Railways would employ over four lakh people by 2021.

The Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said at present the railways have a sanctioned strength of 15.06 lakh employees, of which 12.23 lakh personnel were on the rolls while the remaining 2.82 lakh posts are vacant.

"Last year we undertook the recruitment process for over 1.51 lakh posts, leaving 1.31 lakh posts vacant. And in the coming two years, about 99,000 posts would lie vacant as 53,000 and 46,000 railway employees would retire in 2019 and 2020 respectively," said Piyush Goyal.

The Railway minister announced that the recruitment for 2.3 lakh posts will be completed in the next two years.