Kin of martyrs to get job; in rest all cases, well off dependents won’t get it

Govt to revise SRO-43 guidelines on service

Admn to assess economic condition of deceased’s family

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 31: In a significant decision, the Government is in the process of revising SRO-43 guidelines by excluding mandatory Government job for the kin of officers/officials who die during service and civilians who are killed in militancy related incidents or cross-border shelling except the cases where families are economically very weak and unable to sustain without service. However, kin of martyrs from Army, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Jammu and Kashmir Police will be exempted from the new Policy and they will continue to get the jobs under SRO-43.
“Fresh guidelines are in the final stage and likely to be implemented soon. They are also in lines with the Central Government wherein family conditions of the deceased official are assessed before taking a call on whether to give job to the next of his/her kin or not,” official sources told the Excelsior.
They said as per the new guidelines of the Jammu and Kashmir Government which are likely to be released soon, the Government job will be mandatorily given to next of kin of martyrs of Army, para-military forces and Jammu and Kashmir Police. There will be no condition of examining family background in the case of martyrs and one of their family members will continue to get the Government job, they added.
However, as far as the Union Territory Government officers/officials are concerned, the Government is likely to make grant of job to one of their kin in case they die in service as “exceptional” and not “mandatory”.
“The Government will assess economic condition of family of the deceased which include whether any other family members is in service, land and house owned by them, agriculture land and other sources of their livelihood like business on their names. Only after assessing economic condition of the family, the Government will decide whether to give or reject job to next of kin of deceased,” sources said.
The amount being paid to the family of the deceased officer/official after his death will also be taken into account, they said.
Same yardsticks will apply on the civilians killed in militancy related incidents including blasts, cross-firing as well as border shelling. While the family members of such deceased civilians will continue to get cash relief to which they are entitled, grant of the Government job to their next of kin will also depend on economic condition of the family.
“Presently, kin of the Government officers/officials who die during the service and civilians killed in militancy related incidents and cross-border shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) as well as International Border (IB) are entitled to the Government jobs. However, a large number of such cases have piled up in the Government departments,” sources pointed out.
They said the Government is of the view that mandatory Government job to kin of certain Government officers/officials who die during their service or civilians killed in militancy related and border firing incidents deprive other persons of the Government jobs as their families are well off and have many other sources of livelihood.
In such cases only where the families of deceased are economically sound, the Government jobs will be denied while the families will continue to get ex-gratia relief etc as per the Government rules.
New guidelines, as per the sources, were necessitated as the Government continues to receive large number of files for jobs under SRO-43 cases leading to piling up of the files as the vacancies are limited.
Moreover, according to sources, the Jammu and Kashmir Government guidelines are being revised as per the Central Government norms where also the job is given to the officer/official who dies in service to one of his/her family members only if economic condition of the family is very weak.