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Forgotten jobs
Society: Victims of terrorism in Punjab say the government is
not honouring its promises
By Vijaya
Pushkarna
When
terrorists killed Mohinder Singh, a sarpanch in Amritsar district,
on an October morning eight years ago, his wife Gian Kaur was left
all alone to fend for her younger children Kulvinder, 12, and
Sarvjit, 9. Her elder sons Harjinder and Maljinder had set up
separate homes. Gian thus opted for subsistence allowance given to
victims of terrorism, and the amount rose gradually from Rs 1,500 to
Rs 2,500 in January 1997, when Rajinder Kaur Bhattal of the Congress
was Punjab chief minister.
Much in the manner of promises being made to the families of Kargil
victims now, the Punjab government had at different times announced
concessions to those who had lost their bread-earners to terrorism.
They were thus eligible for priority in allotment of houses, seats
in medical and engineering colleges, and jobs.
Initially widows like Gian had to choose between the subsistence
allowance and the promised job, but Bhattal allowed them to have
both. That was when Gian decided that Kulvinder, who had turned 18,
should knock at the government's door.
The door refused to open. Kulvinder's application was returned with
the objection that he was five years late in applying for the job.
When veteran Communist Satya Pal Dang took up the matter the
government asked why Gian's grown-up son Maljinder had not applied
for the job soon after his father's death? It ignored her reasoning
that she preferred a monthly pension with which she could raise her
two minor boys to a job for an adult son who had moved out.
 Victims
of government apathy: Sanjeev Kumar and Kulvinder Singh lost their
fathers to terrorism. They are yet to get the jobs reserved for the
dependents of terrorism victims.
Dang convinced the deputy commissioner of Amritsar that Kulvinder's
claim was genuine. The file grew thick as it shuttled between the
district headquarters and the Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh. It
now lies on Dang's table, the topmost sheet being a query from a top
official: why didn't Maljinder apply for the job? With that the
widow, her son and the elderly comrade were all pushed back to
square one!
"The Akalis are not at all sympathetic to the victims of
terrorism," said Dang. "Corrupt ministers want money in
return for the job, and these victims cannot give them a thing.
Congress ministers, too, did that." It is not that the
government is saying "no" to the likes of Kulvinder. They
simply use a Supreme Court judgment pertaining to all jobs on
priority basis. Since such jobs are a
special help for those who need it, if some people apply late, it
means they can manage without it. The court gave governments the
power to decide on a cut-off date for applying for the job, and the
Punjab govern-ment decided that two years from the date of killing
was good enough.
The rule was amended to help underage children of terrorist victims:
they could apply within six months of turning 18. Later it was
raised to 21 years. But even that is not enough, said Dang, whose
wife Bimla Dang heads the Punjab Istri Sabha Relief Trust that funds
the education of 1,000 children including 200 orphans of terrorist
victims.
Widower Mahesh Shivraj and his father were gunned down at
Soiyankalan village in June 1984. Mahesh's son Ranjit Kumar, who was
in class three, moved in with relatives in Amritsar town. Initially
he could not get admission in any school in the town since he was
from a rural school, but finally he made it to class one. When he
applied for a job while doing his degree course, his case was
rejected on grounds that he was over 21!
The government then raised the age limit to 25 years. But even when
the applicants satisfy every criterion the government often finds a
reason to deny them jobs. Harjeet Kaur, for instance grew up in the
care of her grandparents after terrorists killed her parents. When
the grandmother died, Harjeet and her siblings were brought to the
Ekta Bhawan in Chheharta on the outskirts of Amritsar, where the
Dangs work. The government told her that lots of others had to be
given jobs before she could get one.
Akalis are not sympathetic to the victims of terrorism. Corrupt
ministers want money in return for the job, and these victims cannot
give them a thing. --Satya Pal Dang
Sanjeev Kumar, whose father Krishan Lal was killed in a bomb
explosion, applied for a job four years ago, immediately after he
came of age and had finished his matriculation. Two years ago, when
he had completed undergradu-ation, the government wanted to know why
his elder sister had not applied for the job when the father died.
Dang told the deputy commissioner that the girl had been married off
before she turned 18. "In Indian society, only one out of a
hundred married women can dare to think of supporting the parental
family," said Dang. But the official would not come around.
"Why didn't the widow herself apply?" he wanted to know.
Dang told him that she would have lost her pension if she had got a
job, and with no one to look after the children her home would
suffer. In any case, she was illiterate. The officer was convinced,
but Sanjeev is yet to get the job.
Ramesh Rani, too, did not opt for the job when her husband Rajinder
was killed 11 years ago because she had her young children to take
care of. Her daughter Darshana Kumari also did not apply when she
turned 18 because that would have stopped her mother's pension. Son
Shambunath learnt only two months ago that they could have both the
job and the pension. But it is too late to apply as far as the
government is concerned.
"There is a High Court ruling that delays on account of
information not being publicised have to be condoned," said
Dang. "Have they made the information with regard to pensions
and priority jobs known to all?" He also pointed out that
sometimes government maintained that there were no vacancies when
there actually were vacancies right in the offices of the district
magistrate.
The government is stingy when it comes to giving pension, too.
Janaki Amma, mother of engineer Suresh Kumar who was killed with a
dozen other non-Punjabis at a project in Sangrur, was given a grand
sum of seven rupees! The government contended that her husband, a
retired class four employee in Kerala, was receiving a pension, and
deducting that from the amount the Punjab government had announced,
they sent her seven rupees. Hearing that her husband's pension was
not enough to meet their medical expenses, the Dangs demanded that
the family be given Rs 5,000 a month. Finally they settled for Rs
2,500 a month. The Dangs have also taken up the cases of 25 widows
of Khadoor Sahib, who have not got their pension for the last
several months.
While they wait for the promised jobs, the dependants of the victims
are toiling hard to sustain their family. Kulvinder works whenever a
sawmill nearby needs him. But he gets only half the statutory
minimum wages in Punjab. Sanjeev Kumar rides a rented auto-rickshaw,
and makes Rs 50 a day. The going is tougher because his mother Bimla
Devi is too old and ill to run the tea stall that used to be his
father's till terrorists pumped bullets into him.
Source: The Week
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