Policy draft on ‘compassionate job’ ready,to be tabled in Cabinet soon

The decision to prepare a comprehensive job policy on compassionate ground was taken after it was found that there is no fixed guideline and a policy through which the government officials could brief the relatives of the deceased on the fixed criteria for the application of jobs on compassionate grounds.

At present,there are nearly 3,000 applicants who have been running from pillar to post for nearly 10-15 years for getting a job,but in vain.

Besides,there are a large number of applicants who have not attained the age of 18.

The draft policy states that appointment in government offices cannot be claimed as a matter of right. Such claim is considered as reasonable and permissible purely on th basis of the sudden crisis emerging in the family of an employee who has served the state and died while in service.

The draft policy that is being prepared stipulates that to get the job on compassionate ground,the total income of the family from all sources,including terminal benefits after death,excluding general provident fund should not exceed Rs 3 lakh.

It was found that many of them who have not attained the age of 18 years have applied for the jobs and have been disqualified.

Labour Minister Purnendu Bose blamed the previous Left Front government for failing to frame a guideline for providing jobs on compassionate ground.

Senior officials of the labour department said that while the new policy makes it mandatory for receiving applications for jobs on compassionate ground within six months of the death of the employee,a new date will be provided for considering the old applications.

The appointment on compassionate ground is not another source of recruitment but merely an exception to the aforesaid requirement taking into consideration the fact of the death of the employee while in service leaving his family without any means of livelihood,the Supreme Court order mentions.