Compassiote Family Pension to replace appointments

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Aug 20: State Fince Minister Himata Biswa Sarma has made public (online) the draft of the – ‘Scheme for Compassiote Family Pension in lieu of Compassiote Appointment and in short, Compassiote Family Pension Scheme or CFP Scheme’ – for feedback from employees and others. The feedback and comments, according to the minister, will be received till August 27, 2017 so as to place them for Cabinet approval.

According to this scheme, Sarma said, in the event of dying of an employee his family will continue to get the salary of the employee till his/her age of retirement after when the family will continue to get pension. This, Sarma said, is instead of providing jobs to the next of kin of a deceased employee under compassiote appointment.

Sarma said: “Compassiote appointment is littered with problems – only five cent vacancies can be filled under such appointment. A standing high court ruling has made it a fact that if the next of a deceased doesn’t get appointment within three years of the death of the employees, she/she can’t claim such appointment later on. This apart, there are other problems like a deceased employees next of kin can’t get a post where his guardian worked even as he/she has the required qualification.”

This scheme is a promise made during the Budget session. “If the Scheme gets Cabinet nod it will be effective from April 2017,” Sarma said.

Draft guidelines formulated, according to Sarma, have the following features –

Where the employee dies before superannuation, the family pension equal to 100% of the last pay drawn by the deceased employee be paid for a period up to the date of ‘deemed superannuation’ of the deceased employee i.e., the date on which the employee would have superannuated had he been alive. This would compensate the loss of family income to a large extent and fulfill the requirement of compassiote conditions arising out of the death of the serving employee.

The last pay drawn for this purpose is the last basic pay (pay in the pay band plus grade pay). Over and above, the Compassiote Family Pensioner will get the applicable Dearness Relief and other Relief amounts as admissible in the normal family pension.

This CFP fixed at 100% of the last pay drawn will be revised periodically as and when normal pension/family pension are revised.

On attaining the date of deemed Superannuation; the CFP will be converted into normal Family Pension. This normal family pension shall be fixed at 50% of CFP from the date of deemed superannuation till 67 years of age of the deceased employee. During this period of 7 years, the normal family pension will be revised periodically as and when normal pension is revised.

Further, on completion of above period of 7 years, the normal family pension will be reduced from 50% to 30% till the applicable eligibility as per the Assam Services (Pension) Rules, 1969 (as amended from time to time).

If the parents or other eligible family members are not looked after by the Compassiote Family Pensioner, on receipt of such complaint from them, the competent authority will issue orders apportioning the Compassiote Family Pension appropriately among the other eligible family members.

But, in case of CFP, the Compassiote Family Pensioner ceases to get the CFP at 100% of the last pay drawn if the Compassiote Family Pensioner happens to be ineligible for normal family pension as per Assam Services (Pension) Rules, 1969 (as amended from time to time).

The applicable definition of family of the employee dies-in-harness will be the definition of family that is given in the Assam Services (Pension) Rules, 1969 (as amended from time to time).

CFP scheme is not applicable for Voluntary retirement/resigtion or any other cases and ‘an employee dies-in-harness’ is the sole criteria. The cause for the death of the employee-in-harness can be anything, either tural or untural.

This will be applicable to all employees of State Government, provincialized employees and all others as eligible under Assam Services (Pension) Rules, 1969 (as amended from time to time) , all State Government employees under NPS category and All India Services officers borne on Assam cadre.