Vacant posts in culture ministry 'pathetic' state of affairs: Parliament committee

A Parliamentary Panel has taken note of massive vacancies in the culture ministry, and said that these vacancies “reflect a very pathetic state of affairs” in ministry’s organisations.

In all, across 37 institutions of the ministry, there were 5560 vacancies. While vacancies are across the ministry’s high-profile organisations, the Archaeological Survey of India alone has more than 3574 positions.

The standing committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, in its report for the culture ministry’s demand for grants, also said that it wondered how the ministry’s organisations functioned as some of the departments had 50 per cent vacancy.

“The Committee feels that the vacancy details reflect a very pathetic state of affairs in all the organisations of the Ministry. The Committee thus finds it difficult to understand how the Ministry can ensure the efficiency of its organisations and manage to meet the present human resource needs of the respective organisations, leave alone there being any scope for new initiatives by the organisations,” the panel reported, adding that the ministry needs to come up with a foolproof mechanism.

Responding to a question on whether the ministry has done any review on the personnel requirements of Archaeological Survey of India, the Ministry in a written reply said that after a review, 758 posts were created in 2021. Nearly 400 of the newly created posts belong to the conservation cadre responsible for upkeep and preservation of monuments, the ministry said.

In the archaeology cadre of ASI, 166 positions were vacant against a sanctioned strength of 420 people and in the conservation cadre, 452 positions were vacant against a total strength of 918 positions. The ASI also has Science, Epigraphy, Horticulture, Drawing cadres, among others.

The National Archives has 207 vacancies, against a sanctioned strength of 454 peoples, while in the Anthropological Survey of India there were 147 vacancies against a total number of 359 posts. The National Library in Kolkata has 149 vacancies among a total of 545 posts, while in the Zonal Cultural centres, 112 of the total 270 posts were vacant. In the Lalit Kala Akademi, 93 of the total 170 posts are vacant. In the National Museum, 88 of the total 202 posts are vacant.

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