ENGAGEMENT OF GDS ON COMPASSIONATE GROUNDS-MERIT POINTS AND PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION.

No. 17-17/2010-GDS
Government of India
Ministry of Communications & IT
Department of Posts
(GDS Section)

Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg.
New Delhi-110116
Dated: 14 Dec. 2010

Chief Postmaster General
Postmasters General
General Managers (Finance)
Director of Accounts (Postal).

Subject:- SCHEME FOR ENGAGEMENT OF GDS ON COMPASSIONATE GROUNDS-MERIT POINTS AND PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION.
Sir/Madam,

To objective of the Scheme for engagement of Gramin Dak Sevaks on compassionate grounds is to engage dependent family member of a Gramin Dak Sevak dying in harness, thereby leaving his family in penury and without adequate means of livelihood.

2. Keeping in view the objective of the Scheme, the existing instructions relating to compassionate engagement have time and again been reviewed/modified/simplified so that the system finally derived at shall be more transparent, efficient and uniform in nature.

3. Currently, there is no laid down transparent criteria for adjudging degree of indigence of the GDS family while considering their cases for compassionate engagement. Therefore, a need is felt to lay down transparent criteria for considering a request for engagement on compassionate grounds by a Committee. A balanced and objective assessment of the financial condition of the family has to be made taking into consideration of his/her assets and liabilities, and all other relevant factors such as presence of an earning member, size of the family and the essential needs of the family including social obligations, etc. in order to assess the degree of indigence of all the applicants to be considered for compassionate engagement. The Department of Personnel & Training has provided for limiting compassionate appointment of wards of departmental employees to 5% of the total vacancies and no such stipulation has been made for this purpose in respect of GDS. This, however, does not mean that all applicants are to be engaged as GDS on compassionate grounds in relaxation of normal and only the exceptional and deserving cases are to be considered for compassionate engagement as the scheme stipulates that compassionate engagement is to be given only in indigent and deserving cases.

4. The existing procedure has been reviewed in this Directorate and it has been decided by the competent authority that to achieve the objective of the scheme of the compassionate engagement and to ensure complete transparency, merits of the cases can be conveniently indicated by allocating points to the applicants based on various attributes.