STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Assam Government has taken initiatives to fully activate the PRANAM (Parents Responsibility and Norms for Accountability and Monitoring) Commission.
The Finance department recently issued an official notification to create four new posts to strengthen functioning of the Commission which was set up in 2019 after the Assam Legislative Assembly passed the Bill. It was the first-of its-kind legislation in the country to protect the elderly parents of the government employees in their times of need.
The 'PRANAM Act' has made it mandatory for the State Government employees to look after their parents and unmarried differently-abled siblings who do not have their own sources of income.
If the PRANAM Commission gets a complaint that parents of any State Government employee are being ignored, then the government will deduct 10 or 15 per cent of the employee's salary and give that amount to the parents or differently-abled siblings of that employee.
The Bill was conceptualized in the wake of harsh reality in the society that there have been rising instances of aged and dependent parents being left unattended and uncared for by their wards.
"Since the setting up of this Commission in 2019, it is being run by a Chief Commissioner and two Commissioners," pointed out a source.