Shimla, Oct. 11 -- Families awaiting compassionate appointments in Himachal Pradesh on Saturday urged the state government to clear long-pending cases, fast-track appointments already cleared through screening, and extend a uniform annual-income ceiling of Rs.3 lakh to rejected applicants. A delegation of approximately 250 to 300 applicants and family members from across the state reached the Himachal Pradesh Secretariat on the day of a cabinet meeting to press their demands. The applicants are dependents of government employees who died while in service, either in accidents or other circumstances, and are seeking employment as relief under the compassionate-appointment policy. President of the Himachal Pradesh Karunamoolak Sangh, Ajay Kumar, said "About 3,500 cases were pending when the Congress government came to power. After around three-and-a-half years, the government gave some relief in 2025 by raising the income limit from Rs.2.5 lakh to Rs.3 lakh and removing the per-cap provision." He said the revised income criterion was applicable for only three months and that about 1,200 applicants cleared the screening process during that period. Of them, around 450 candidates had secured Class-III appointments, he said, while the remaining cases were progressing slowly. Kumar said many of the pending candidates were eligible for Class-III and Class-IV posts. He said Class-IV appointments, earlier made on daily-wage positions such as peon or chowkidar, were now proposed under the multi-task worker category. "The policy is stuck with the finance department. The government should release it at the earliest so that nearly 1,200 selected cases can receive employment within a month," Kumar said....