On Tuesday, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi handed over appointment letters for government jobs to 27 family members of farmers who died in the agitation against the three farm laws.
The chief minister stated that the Punjab government will always take every conceivable measure to safeguard the welfare of the victim families, referring to farmers as the backbone of the state's economic structure.
Notably, the state government has so far paid out a total of 5 lakh in compensation to almost 407 families of farmers who died during the year-long agitation against farm laws which have now been abolished by the Centre. They have also provided jobs to 169 next-of-kin of these deceased farmers.
According to an official spokesperson for the Punjab government, the administration has discovered a total of 407 cases of deceased farmers from all districts where government jobs can be supplied to their next-of-kin.
However, the State Level Committee has already cleared 120 new names of the kin of the deceased farmers, out of which 27 candidates have been provided with job offer letters, with the remaining 93 letters to be delivered in the coming days.
Further, the spokesman stated that the process is ongoing and that as soon as the government receives the verification report from the district level, eligible family members are granted appointment letters commensurate with their qualifications.
As a one-time measure on compassionate grounds, the Punjab government has previously decided that the deceased farmers' mother, father, married brother or sister, married daughter, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren will be eligible for employment.
According to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO), 15 out of the 27 people who received appointment letters were from Patiala district, three from Amritsar, two from SAS Nagar (Mohali), and seven from Fatehgarh Sahib.
