More than 8,500 vacancies in CGR not filled

By Don Asoka Wijewardena

Over 8,500 vacancies, in various grades, still exist as successive governments had failed to fill them, Transport Minister Kumara Welgama said yesterday.

Speaking to the Media at the Transport Ministry Auditorium, he said that action would be taken to fill those vacancies once the Supreme Court case, pertaining to the clerical staff of the CGR, ended.

Recruitment of 48 station masters had been gazetted in accordance with Recruitment Procedure. Those vacancies would be filled in due course, he said.

Minister Welgama said that though the CGR was in need of 23,726 employees, only 15,135 were employed on the roll. There were 8,591 vacancies unfilled in the CGR. Vacancies such as railway technologists (1,183), assistant technologists (2,229), clerks (514), railway stations staff (1,016), station masters Grade 1 (48) and other positions in the CGR (3,601) had not been filled.

He pointed out that though the vacancies had not been filled the required services in all the sections were going on as usual. As soon as the Court case was over, 514 vacancies in the clerical section would be filled. A Cabinet paper to absorb all casual workers into the permanent cadre had been prepared and would be submitted to the Cabinet soon.

CGR General Manager B. A. P. Ariyaratne said that the total annual expenditure of the CGR was Rs. 8,500 million, but the revenue was only Rs. 4,000 million. The CGR spent about Rs. 3,000 million to purchase diesel annually. The CGR and the SLTB were not run to earn profits, but they were service providers to the country, he said.