GUWAHATI: From October 2, an employee of Assam government will be liable to part with 10 to 15 per cent of his monthly gross salary if found guilty of not taking adequate care of his or her dependent elderly parents and physically challenged siblings.

“This is to ensure that they (the employees) look after their parents, who do not have any source of income and are dependent on them. The employee should also take care of a physically challenged sibling, who is also dependent on him,” health and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said here on Friday.

In a first in the country, the BJP-led alliance government had enacted a legislation called the Assam Employees Parental Responsibility Norms for Accountability Monitoring Act, 2017, in September last year. The rules of the law, called Pranam Act in short were approved by cabinet on Monday. Sarma said that with the removal of all legislative and administrative hurdles, the new law will be enforced from October 2 this year.

“This would be applicable for those parents who are dependent on the children working as an employee of the state government. The parents will not be covered by this law if they have their own sources of income, including pension,” Sarma said.

“If it is about not taking adequate care of the parents only, the penalty would be 10 per cent of the employee’s salary. If there is a physically challenged and dependent sibling, who has also not been taken care of adequately, the penalty will be 15 per cent of the monthly salary of the employee,” Sarma said. He added that if the ignored parents have more than one child working in the government, the penalty will be distributed equally among their children.

The aggrieved parents have to approach the designated authority to claim the money for their upkeep along with proof of no source of income and need of financial support. The designated authority can also reject an application from the aggrieved parents if not found to have any ground for seeking assistance.

The employee child of the aggrieved parents will be given chance to be heard by the designated officer after the penalty is fixed. If the employee or his or her aggrieved parents are not satisfied with the penalty, either party can go for an appeal with appellate authority to be designated by the government and if the need arise, for a second appeal with the PRANAM commission, the decision of which will be final.

Sarma said that the PRANAM commission is being set up, which will have one commissioner, who is a retired bureaucrat of the rank of additional chief secretary or above and two additional commissioners, who would be either social workers or two retired former civil servants in the rank of commissioner and secretary.

