Punjab raises financial aid for families of deceased employees

Assistance includes marriage and education grants

RAWALPINDI:

The Punjab government has slightly increased the financial assistance for the families of government officers and employees during their in-service death.

The assistance will include marriage grant for girls, funeral expenses of the deceased family members and education grant for the deceased's children. Applications have also been sought from the officers and employees for the current financial year.

Affected families of scale 1 to 15 employees will get a marriage grant of Rs55,000 for girls, while families of scale 16 to 22 officers will get Rs80,000. An amount of Rs35000 will be given to the families of all employees from scale 1 to 22, for the funeral of their loved ones.

In terms of educational scholarships, the families of employees of scale 1 to 15 will get Rs1,500 for primary to matriculation, Rs6,000 for intermediate, and Rs8,000 for graduation, while families of officers of scale 16 to 22 will get Rs10,000 for primary to matriculation level, Rs28,000 for intermediate, and Rs32,000 for graduation.

The government has earmarked Rs30,000 under annual financial assistance for families of scale one to four employees, Rs35,000 for scale five to 10, Rs40,000 for scale 11 to 15, Rs45,000 for scale 16 and 17, Rs60,000 for scale 18 and 19, while Rs70,000 for the families of scale 20 to 22 officers.

Assistance in the form of group insurance for scales 1-4 is Rs450,000, Rs200,000 for scales 5-10, Rs300,000 for scales 11-15, Rs450,000 for scale 16, Rs600,000 for scale 17, Rs875,000 for scale 18, Rs1.05 million for scale 19 and Rs1.25m for officers having scales 20-22.

All the needy families will submit applications to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) offices. The applications submitted will be scrutinised after which deserving families will be selected.

Muhammad Shafiq Bhalwalia, the central secretary-general of the Punjab SES Teachers Association and Abdul Rauf Kayani, the president of the Punjab Primary Elementary Secondary Teachers Association, termed the marriage and funeral grant as very low and demanded the marriage grant to be raised to Rs100,000 and the funeral grant to Rs50,000.