New Delhi, July 22 -- The government will recruit 190 personnel in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) by the end of October this year, Union minister Ram Mohan Naidu told Parliament on Monday.

The civil aviation minister was responding to a question from Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Ashok Chavan in the Rajya Sabha on the steps being taken by the government to address the shortage of staff in the country's aviation regulator in order to ensure passenger safety.

This comes a day after HT reported that DGCA was operating with just 553 officials while overseeing operations in one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets. According to official documents, seen by HT, DGCA has 48% of its 1,063 technical posts vacant. Of...