Neglect parents, lose pay..Assam bill to deduct 10-15% salary

PANKAJ SARMA, TT, Guwahati, Sept. 15: Assam has passed a bill that seeks to deduct 10-15 per cent of the salary of government employees who do not take care of their parents and disabled siblings.

The deducted amount will be passed on to the parents and the siblings who have been neglected, according to the PRANAM (Parent Responsibility and Norms for Accountability and Monitoring) Act. Private companies will be covered later.

In most other states, including Bengal, the neglect of parents is dealt with under provisions of the criminal procedure code and the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.

In the criminal code, magistrates are empowered to order maintenance while tribunals are expected to do so if the 2007 law is invoked but neither permits direct deduction of the salary.

Under the Assam bill, neglected dependants will have to apply in writing before a designated authority notified by the government. The authority will decide the eligibility of the claims and dispose of the matter within 90 days of receipt of the application after giving the applicant and the employee concerned a reasonable opportunity of being heard.

"This act will try to ensure that elderly parents do not end up in old-age homes and can pass their twilight years in their own homes," Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the Assembly today.

"This is the first such act in the country. No other state has passed such a law. We will next bring in a similar bill for employees of public sector units and (private) companies," he added.

Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami said the act was "one of the most progressive".

Sarma said the bill was not aimed at interfering in the private lives of employees but to ensure that their parents and siblings could lodge a complaint if they faced neglect.

The minister said Indian society had inherited rich ideals and values from ancient times that equated parents with gods. But in modern society, marked by increased mobility and the growth of nuclear families, instances of children neglecting their dependent parents were common. This had necessitated the act, he added.

PTI quoted former chief minister and Opposition Congress leader Tarun Gogoi as terming the legislation an "insult" to Assamese society, which, he said, had a tradition of looking after old parents and siblings.

Claiming such a legislation interfered in the private lives of government employees, Gogoi said: "Our culture is to not only look after our old parents and siblings, and educating them, but also to take care of cousins and other relatives."

The Assam Assembly also passed a bill to develop the state capital region on the lines of the National Capital Region. The chief minister will chair the authority and the ministers for finance, Guwahati development and urban development will be members.

Sarma said the state capital region would include the districts of Kamrup (Metro), Kamrup, Nalbari, Darrang and Morigaon, fully or partly.