Come Oct, Assam govt to penalise staff for not looking after parents

The Assam government will bring a law from October 2 that will compel all its employees to look after their dependent parents and differently-abled siblings or face deductions from their salary, a minister said today.

Assam will be the first state in the country to enforce such a law, he added.

"The cabinet has approved the rules of the Pronam Act earlier this week. We will now establish a Pronam Commission and appoint officials to it. Finally, we will start enforcing the Pronam Act from October 2," Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told a press conference here.

In September last year, the Assam Assembly had passed the Assam Employees' Parents Responsibility and Norms for Accountability and Monitoring Bill, 2017, in short the "Pronam Bill", to ensure that the state government employees took care of their aging parents and differently-abled siblings or faced deductions from their salary.

"As per the rules, if a child (government employee) does not look after his or her dependent parents, then 10 per cent of gross salary will be deducted and deposited to the parent's account. It can go up to 15 per cent if the employee has any 'divyang' (differently-abled) sibling," Sarma said.

The aggrieved parents could approach the Drawing and Disbursal Officer (DDO) of the office where the ward worked for deduction of salary, he added.

"Not satisfied with the DDO's stand, both parties can approach the director of the department concerned as he will be the appellate authority as per the Act. If still not happy, one can approach the Pronam Commission. The entire matter should be settled within three months," Sarma said.

During the passage of the bill in the Assembly, Sarma had said a similar bill would be introduced in the House within the next three years for the MLAs and MPs in the state and the employees of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and private companies operating in Assam.