Amidst the growing resentment within the party over the Punjab Cabinet’s decision to grant Government jobs to two Congress MLAs’ sons on compassionate grounds, no less than nine Cabinet Ministers, four MPs, and five MLAs came out in open support of the Government’s move.
A joint statement was issued by over a dozen Ministers and parliamentarians, besides another statement by five Congress MLAs from Ludhiana announcing their support to the Cabinet’s decision to appoint the sons of sitting MLAs Fatehjung Singh Bajwa and Rakesh Pandey as Punjab Police Inspector and Naib Tehsildar respectively.
Punjab Mandi Board chairman and veteran Congress leader Lal Singh also came out strongly in support of the Cabinet’s decision and advised all political leaders of the Congress to refrain from making any statement that could potentially weaken the party.
“The collective decision of the Cabinet to give government jobs to sons of sitting MLAs is correct and in line with appointments given to similarly situated persons in the past,” said the Ministers and MPs extending their support to the decision. They include Ministers — Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Vijay Inder Singla, Aruna Chaudhary, Sunder Sham Arora, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Balbir Singh Sidhu, OP Soni, Bharat Bhushan Ashu; and MPs Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Jasbir Singh Dimpa and Mohammad Sadiq.
On Friday, the Punjab Government had decided to appoint the sons of two Congress MLAs as a police inspector and a naib tehsildar as a “special case”. The State Government claimed that the decision was taken on compassionate grounds, as a mark of recognition to the “sacrifices” made by their grandfathers who were killed during the height of militancy in Punjab.
Lashing out at the critics for failing to appreciate the state policy that has been in force for many years now, they said that the Congress Government has accorded top priority to ‘Ghar Ghar Rozgar Te Karobar Mission’, which has already facilitated employment for about 17.60 lakh youth out of which 62,743 persons have been provided government jobs, 9.97 lakh persons have been assisted in self-employment and 7,01,804 private sector jobs have been facilitated.
The Government has already initiated the process for filling up an additional one lakh government jobs, and this process shall continue unabated and the Government shall leave no stone unturned in assisting every unemployed youth in the State, they added.
It was also pointed out that Punjab had always been a welfare state and it has been giving jobs to various classes of persons keeping in view the hardship faced by them as a result of unforeseen and tragic circumstances. Apart from terrorist-affected families, jobs and/or financial assistance has been given to handicapped persons, rape victims and the families of 1984 riot victims, Defence Personnel killed in action and Government Employees who die in harness to name a few, they added.
Giving details of appointments given in the past to families of terrorist affected victims, it was pointed out that there are at present, at least five such officers in the IAS cadre of Punjab who had originally been appointed to the Punjab Civil Service (Executive) on these grounds. “The singular case of the Department of Excise and Taxation where 108 jobs, including two ETOs, have been given to the victims on these grounds. Similarly, six terrorist victims had been appointed as Naib Tehsildar and many other victims have been given significant appointments (DSP, Inspector, etc) in other Departments and continue to serve on very senior positions in the State,” they added.
Listing out all the appointments and aids given to various families, the Congress leaders added that even in the recent farmers’ agitation against the central farm laws, “the State Government has assured a job to each of the families of the farmers who have died during the agitation, and the process of providing these is already underway. Financial assistance is also being extended to all such families”.
“When other similarly placed persons are being regularly given benefits under the State Policy, it would be unfair to discriminate against the children of MLAs simply because their fathers are currently holding such positions. Even in the past, the Government has not discriminated on the basis of social standing or economic well-being of families while extending such benefits,” they added.
The leaders went on to add that the people, critical of the move, have lost sight of the fact that a job of DSP was given to the grandson of former Chief Minister Beant Singh, who was assassinated by terrorists. A job of Naib Tehsildar was similarly given to the wife of late MLA Baldev Singh.
Citing additional examples, they said that pursuant to the assassination of DIG AS Atwal, his wife was appointed to the PCS (Executive) and subsequently even his son was given a job of Inspector in the Punjab Police.
“In the present case, Fatehjung Singh Bajwa was a minor when the tragic incident occurred, in which he lost his father, while Rakesh Pandey was incapacitated by an accident which did not allow him to take up employment under the State Government. As a result, it is perfectly justified that their children should be offered these jobs,” they argued.
It may be recalled that the Chief Minister had also defended the decision of the Cabinet by observing that one cannot allow such sacrifices to go waste while reiterating that the Punjab Government will continue to recognize each such contribution to the state’s peace and harmony.
Also defending the Cabinet’s move, five senior Congress MLAs from Ludhiana said that the decision has been taken as per policy under which kins of the terrorist-affected families, freedom fighters, and those who give their lives for the country get jobs in Punjab.
Lashing out at opposition parties for making hue and cry unnecessarily, the legislators — Kuldeep Singh Vaid, Balwinder Singh Laddi, Santokh Singh Bhalaipur, Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, and Satkar Kaur — in a joint statement said that the Government is duty-bound to take care of the families of those who got martyrdom for safeguarding peace and communal harmony of the country.