Speed up process to employ kin of farm stir, Amritsar train tragedy victims: Punjab govt

Chandigarh, July 28

With elections to the Vidhan Sabha round the corner, the Capt Amarinder Singh government has gone into an overdrive to woo various sections of voters by providing them the elusive “sarkari naukri”.

From kin of farmers who have died in the ongoing farmers’ agitation to the kin of those killed in the Amritsar train accident in 2018, the past weekend has seen a flurry of activity in the state, with the government asking officials concerned to immediately provide them jobs in Group “C” and “D” on the basis of their educational qualification.

Letters have been sent out from the state government headquarters to all Deputy Commissioners for immediate action on these compassionate appointments.

Interestingly, the government letters issued to all Deputy Commissioners recently mentions that these “compassionate appointments” are to be made through a special relaxation in the state’s Scheme for Compassionate Appointments, 2002. This policy allows for appointments on compassionate grounds only for dependent member of the family of a person killed or physically disabled in terrorist action; dependent family member of a government servant who died in harness; disabled ex-servicemen; or, dependent members of defensive service personnel killed in service in line of duty or those who are severely handicapped.

It may be noted that 546 farmers and farm labourers have died in the ongoing protest against the three farm laws. “Most of the kin of farmers will get jobs in Group D where minimum required qualification is primary school education. Very few will qualify for Group C posts (clerks), where minimum qualification is graduation. The employment will be provided mostly in education, health and irrigation departments,” a senior government official told The Tribune.

It may be noted that while the Centre has said in Parliament that it has no record of farmers’ deaths, the Capt Amarinder Singh government has already given compensation of Rs 5 lakh to families of almost 500 farmers and labourers who have died during the stir. With farmers being one of the biggest vote bank, especially in the all- important Malwa region having 69 Assembly seats, the Congress government wants to woo them hard.

The move to immediately give jobs follows a widespread criticism of the state government on employment generation and the inability of the government to provide jobs for all (Ghar Ghar Rozgar), as promised in the Congress’ 2017 election manifesto. — TNS

RTI reply exposes tall claims on jobs

• Though the government claims that it has provided jobs to over 16 lakh youth between April 2017 and December 2020, information received by RTI activist Dinesh Chaddha shows 58,508 persons got govt jobs, while 5,69,440 private
• “The govt claims they facilitated self-employment for 9,97,319 persons, but the RTI reply shows 7.72 lakh of these took loans from banks under central schemes, 1.17 lakh from “loan melas” and 17,559 under joint schemes

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