The Karnataka Government Thursday informed the Legislative Council that as many as 4,00,978 jobs have remained vacant, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah saying that the delay in hiring happened due to internal reservation issues, which he said have now been resolved.
To a question raised by North West Graduates Constituency MLC Nirani Hanamanth Rudrappa during the ongoing session, Siddaramaiah said, “We cannot fill all the posts overnight, but will fill them in a phased manner. We have already filled 84,844 posts through outsourcing”.
Echoing him, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said the government is committed to filling the posts.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reminded the Congress of its poll promise in the manifesto, which said the party would fill 2 lakh posts within a year, but nothing has been done in the last 2.5 years, Siddaramaiah took a jibe at the Opposition party.
“How many posts have you filled? Were there not vacancies during your tenure?” he asked the BJP.
Between 2023 and 2025, the government filled 8,157 posts, and the recruitment process is underway for 3,081 vacant posts across the board. In 2023-24 to 2024-25, the Finance Department, the portfolio held by Siddaramaiah, approved hiring only for 24,300 vacant posts.
According to data, 2,84,881 posts are vacant across various government departments, 1,01,420 in boards/corporations, and 14,677 in universities.
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Among the departments, the highest vacancies are in the school education and literacy department (79,694), followed by the medical education and health department (37,572) and the higher education department (13,599).
Among boards and corporations, Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) has the highest number of vacancies at 34,474, Hubli Electricity Supply Company Limited (HESCOM) has 6,540, and Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) has 4,635.
Among universities, the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru (2,817), Karnataka University, Dharwad (1,263) and Bangalore University (1,006).
Karnataka has 43 departments, 100 boards/corporations, and 37 universities.
Vacancies in Karnataka
Vacancy in government departments: 2,84,881
Vacancy in boards and corporations: 1,01,420
Vacancy in Universities: 14,677
Total: 4,00,978
The finance department approval to fill posts: 24,300 crore