LUCKNOW: In a significant cabinet decision taken to benefit married women, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to place the married daughters of government officials in the category of dependents and made them eligible for a job on compassionate grounds if the government official dies during the service period.
The state cabinet headed by CM Yogi Adityanath put its seal on the proposal. The move could give a new colour to women empowerment in poll-bound UP.
The state cabinet cleared the proposal to this effect through a cabinet by-circulation late on Wednesday night. Until now, only the wife, a married/unmarried son and unmarried daughter were eligible to be considered as dependents of a deceased government official. The cabinet broadened the definition of "dependent daughters" to include the married ones also, officials said.
A senior official, however, clarified that the married daughter will be considered for the job only after the deceased's wife, married/unmarried son and unmarried daughter.
"She may also get the job if the other family members refuse to take up a government job," the official said.
The proposal was moved as the 12th amendment in the deceased government servants' rule 2021.
Earlier this year, the Allahabad High Court had maintained that excluding married daughters from the definition of "family" in the rules for appointment on compassionate grounds was "unconstitutional" and in violation of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution.
While hearing a petition in January, the High Court held that a married daughter was "no less eligible" for government jobs on compassionate grounds than her married brother or unmarried sister.
In another important decision, the cabinet gave its nod to a proposal of rehabilitating 63 Hindu Bengali families who were displaced after the formation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1971. The families will be settled in village Bhaisaya in Kanpur (rural) over 121.41 hectares of land. Each family will be
given 2 acres of land for agricultural purposes and 200 sq mt (over 2100 sq ft) of land for housing on a lease rent of Re 1 for a period of 30 years, renewable up to 90 years. They will also be provided a grant of Rs 1.20 lakh for the construction of a house.
These families were earlier settled in Hastinapur in Meerut by providing them jobs in Madan Yarn Mill. The Mill got shut in 1984. Since then, the families had been seeking rehabilitation.
In 1971, the centre rehabilitated 332 displaced Hindu families during the formation of East Pakistan in Orissa (now Odisha) and in Badaun district of UP.