The Centre on Thursday removed the time-limit of three years for appointment on compassionate ground of a dependent of a government servant who has died during service or retired on medical grounds.It has also asked secretary of concerned ministries or departments under it to decide on cases that are as old as five years.
The decision to withdraw the time-limit was taken after consultation with Ministry of Law and Justice, the Department of Personnel and Training said in an official memorandum issued today.
The Centre said that while considering such belated requests it was, however, to be kept in view that the concept of such appointment is largely related to the need for immediate assistance to the family of the government servant in order to relieve it from economic distress.
“The very fact that the family has been able to manage somehow all these years should normally be taken as adequate proof that the family had some dependable means of subsistence.” “Therefore, examination of such cases call for a great deal of circumspection. The decision to make appointment on compassionate grounds in such cases was to be taken only at the level of the secretary of the department or ministry concerned,” it said.
It has cited a last year’s Supreme Court judgement saying that it is imperative to assess financial resources available to dependents of a government servant either after his death or after retirement on medical ground and suggested departments to take a time-bound decision on such appointments.
The object of compassionate appointment scheme is to grant job to a dependent family member of a government servant dying in harness or who has retired on medical grounds, thereby leaving his family in penury and without any means of livelihood, to relieve his or her family from financial destitution and to help them get over the emergency.
