In what is being seen as an attempt by the ruling Congress party in Punjab to placate its disgruntled leaders, the Punjab Government on Friday went ahead with its proposal of giving government jobs to the sons of the two party MLAs.
The move came more than 30 years after both the appointees — Arjun Pratap Singh Bajwa as Inspector (Group B) in Punjab Police; and Bhisham Pandey as Naib Tehsildar in Revenue Department — had lost their respective grandfathers in terrorist attacks in 1987.
The government jobs, “on compassionate grounds”, were approved by the State Cabinet, in its virtual meeting on Friday, for the sons of Qadian MLA Fatehjung Bajwa (who is the brother of the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s bête noire and known critic Partap Singh Bajwa who is Rajya Sabha MP), and Ludhiana north MLA and veteran party leader Rakesh Pandey.
Fatehjung’s father, Satnam Singh Bajwa, who was also the former Minister, was killed in a terrorist attack in Amritsar; while Pandey’s father Joginderpal Pandey was killed by terrorists in Ludhiana when insurgency was at its peak in Punjab.
Even as the objections were raised over the appointments with legal eagles maintaining that the decision would not be able to stand the judicial scrutiny, the Capt Amarinder Singh’s camp believed that it may help in warding off some of the criticism against the Chief Minister.
The appointments came four years after the Congress Government received severe criticism for appointing the grandson of slain Chief Minister Beant Singh as DSP in the Punjab Police on compassionate grounds by fine-tuning the Rules.
Notably, after coming to power in 2017, the Congress Government had appointed Beant Singh’s grandson Guriqbal Singh, who is also the brother of Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and cousin of Congress MLA Gurkirat Singh Kotli, as DSP by granting “special permission” by relaxing maximum age requirement.
The Cabinet has approved Arjun Bajwa’s appointment as Punjab Police Inspector (Group B) as “a special case” by tweaking some rules. “He has been given appointment by allowing one-time waiver or relaxation in the relevant rules without making it a precedent,” said the government official after the Cabinet’s decision.
The official added, “The applicant is the grandson of ex-Punjab Minister Satnam Singh Bajwa, who laid his life in 1987 for the sake of peace and harmony in the State.”
Arjun Bajwa’s appointment came a day after Fatehjung openly came out in open support of the Chief Minister saying that Capt Amarinder is his leader while (Partap) Bajwa is his brother. The development also comes amidst reports that Capt Amarinder has reached out to his top detractor Partap Bajwa and both leaders held a secret meeting ahead June 20 meeting with the party chief Sonia Gandhi. However, both have denied the reports of any such meeting.
In another Cabinet decision, appointment of Bhisham Pandey as Naib Tehsildar (Group-B) in Revenue department has been approved treating it as “a special case”, by giving one-time relaxation in the policy of compassionate appointments, 2002. “However, it will not be treated as a precedent,” said the official statement.
Noting the sacrifice of their families, the Chief Minister said that the children or grandchildren of such people would continue to be considered by his Government for compensatory appointment on case to case basis.
The appointment assumes significance as Partap Bajwa has, since long, opened a front against his own party’s government, especially the Chief Minister, criticizing on several issues. There are also reports that Pandey has also extended his support to the rebels group.
It has been learnt that initially the Government had proposed to appoint Arjun Bajwa as DSP to which the Home Department had raised some objections pointing that the rules do not permit his appointment three decades after his grandfather was killed citing the Supreme Court’s ruling that jobs on compassionate grounds should be given within a time span.
Besides, the rules say that the job on compassionate grounds can only be given if the job seeker is dependent on the person losing life or if the family is economically poor — something which do not apply in both the cases.