The Centre on Wednesday said almost 1%, or 13,521 of the 13 lakh railway employees are chronic absentees. Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohail told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the data was based on inputs from a drive conducted across all 17 zones in November to identify employees on unauthorised leave, PTI reported.

In February, the Indian Railways had said in a statement that it would terminate the services of over 13,000 employees who are on “unauthorised leave” for a long time. “Railways have instructed all officers and supervisors to weed out these employees from the employees’ rolls after following due process,” the statement said.

Gohail said on Wednesday that the East Central Zone accounted for most of the total absentees with 1,792 cases. The East Central Zone, headquartered, at Hajipur comprises Sonpur, Samastipur, Danapur, Mughalsarai, and Dhanbad divisions.

The survey found 1,476 employees absent without authorised leave in the Southern Zone in Chennai and 1,417 in the Mumbai-headquartered Western Zone.

“Appropriate action under Disciplinary and Appeal Rules has been initiated against such absentees,” the minister said.