IMPHAL, Feb 27: The Manipur government has without fail always kept aside 10 percent of its new job recruitments for its die-in-harness scheme, the Chief Minsiter, Okram Ibobi told the Manipur Legislative Assembly on the third day of its 10th session today.
The debate was initiated by AITC legislator, Th. Shyamkumar Singh as a discussion on a matter of public interest.
Shyamkumar had tabled the matter in the house under the agenda of `on the improper implementation of die-in-harness scheme in the State.`
In his answer, the chief minister said the State`™s Department of Personal, DP, has been from time to time, in accordance to need, have been formulating rules to ensure the die-in-harness scheme is appropriately implemented. This is necessary because the rule cannot be applied to every vacancy which crop up from time to time in the government departments.
He said before 2006, there was the provision only five percent of the government vacancies to be filled under the die-in-harness scheme. The rest was left for fresh recruitments. However, because of the mounting number of eligible candidates for the scheme, from 2006 onwards, the percentage had been increased to 10 percent, he explained.
This new rule is current even today, the Chief Minister further said.
He said the die-in-harness recruitment is made as a compensation for government employees who die while in service, and can be availed only by the direct descendants of the deceased employee.
He said though nobody would want to weigh the value of life against jobs, unfortunately for the State, with each passing year, the number of eligible candidates for government jobs against die-in-harness scheme is ever on the increase.
These jobs can be applied for by eligible candidates within a year of the demise of a government employee, he further said, and such a candidate cannot be less than 18 years of age.
He further explained that only Grade III and Grade IV jobs are open to be filled under the die-in-harness scheme.
However, because of the bad financial situation in the State then, the scheme was kept in suspension during 2002 and 2005, the chief minister said.
At the moment, there is a beeline of a few thousand candidates vying government jobs under the scheme, he said. In the education department itself, there are over 1000 candidates in the waiting list, he added.
The government is trying to accommodating as many of these candidates as possible as a onetime measure, but the government is limited by the availability of vacancies in its various departments, the chief minister said.
Under the circumstance, the only option left with the government is to create new jobs, but this is solely dependent on the financial resources in the government`™s command, he further said.
The government however has been to the extent possible been trying to make exceptions through cabinet decisions and make suitable government jobs available to next of kin of employees who die in counter insurgency related duties. The nature of the jobs is also dependent on the educational qualification as well as physical fitness of such candidates, he said.
He said besides keeping by the rules of the Department of Personnel, such appointments have to mandatorily have the approval of the concerned ministers.