Prepare draft legislation to ensure timely verification of caste certificate: Par panel to govt

A Parliamentary Committee on Friday asked the government to prepare a suitable draft legislation to ensure timely verification of caste certificates and streamline the process without affecting genuine candidates, an official report said.The panel said it has experienced instances where employees were being forced to get their caste certificate verified before fag end of their retirement or they would be chargesheeted.

A Parliamentary Committee on Friday asked the government to prepare a suitable draft legislation to ensure timely verification of caste certificates and streamline the process without affecting genuine candidates, an official report said.

The panel said it has experienced instances where employees were being forced to get their caste certificate verified before fag end of their retirement or they would be chargesheeted. ''The Committee, therefore, not only reiterate their earlier recommendation that responsibility should be fixed for any inordinate delay during the process of the verification of caste certificate but also that DoPT (Department of Personnel and Training) in coordination with the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment must prepare a suitable draft legislation to this effect to ensure timely verification of caste certificate and streamlining of the process of verification of caste certificate without adversely affecting the genuine SC/ST employees,'' said the report.

The panel said that legislation to this effect is essential to assess and analyse the strict implementation of the various directions or instructions issued by the state government & DoPT to avoid deprivation of bonafide pensionary benefits to retired persons.

The Committee, headed by BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste, made these observations in its second report on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training) tabled in Parliament on Friday.

The report is on action taken by the government on the recommendations or observations contained in the panel's 25th report on the ''Role of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training) in formulation, implementation and monitoring of reservation policy".

In its latest report, the Committee said it was ''concerned to note that even after the detailed guidelines dated 02-09-1994 laid down by the Supreme Court for streamlining the procedure of the issuance of social status certificates'', the process of verification was taking time.

''The process of verification of caste certificate is yet to be thoroughly streamlined which has resulted in withholding retirement benefits of many SC/ST employees due to non-verification of their caste certificate or even resulting in death of the retired employee before completion of the verification process,'' the panel said.

The government's action taken reply stated that instructions have been issued to ministries or departments, including their attached, subordinate offices, public sector undertakings (PSUs), autonomous bodies etc., to ensure that the process for verification of the caste certificate of the employee may be initiated immediately and to ensure that the same is completed within aix months of her/his joining the service, it said. However, many instances/cases of withholding of pensionary benefits of the SC/ST employees serving in State/UT governments have been noticed due to the pendency of their caste verification process at the fag end of their retirement, the panel said.

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