The Maharashtra government on Thursday announced pension for those who went to prison during the 1975 Emergency period, after a similar decision taken by Devendra Fadnavis back in 2018 was overturned by the Uddhav Thackeray government. “All those people who went to jail during the 1975 Emergency to be given a pension by the Maharashtra govt. This decision was taken in 2018 but the last govt shut it down,” said Fadnavis.
In another major decision, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde announced that prices of petrol and diesel have been slashed by Rs 5 per litre and Rs 3 per litre respectively, and will cost the state exchequer Rs 6,000 crore for the current fiscal.
Back in 2018, then Maharashtra CM Fadnavis had said in the state Assembly that his government would provide pension to those who were imprisoned during the Emergency period under the Indira Gandhi government.
“Many people refused the pension. But some are still poor who lost jobs after being arrested for no fault of theirs,” he had said during the Question Hour in the floor of the House. The Maharashtra government had also stated that 3,267 applications were approved regarding the same.
Approval to 1,179 applications were given based on Rs 100 stamp paper submitted as a proof that the applicant had served a sentence during the Emergency period. When Ajit Pawar asked about the veracity of the documents, the then Minister of State for Relief and Rehabilitation Madan Yerawar said that a district collector-led committee was in place to check the documents, and only the genuine ones were accepted.
“A budget of Rs 42 crore was finalised for the pension scheme and out of this, Rs 28 crore to Rs 29 crore has been disbursed,” Yerawar had said. The government had fixed a monthly pension of Rs 5,000 for the ones who were in prison for a month, and those imprisoned for a longer period would receive Rs 10,000 per month. In case of death of a person imprisoned during that period, the family members would be entitled to Rs 2,500 per month (for a prison time of one month or less) and Rs 5,000 ( for a prison time of more than a month).