After Uddhav restores expired pension, Shinde govt to clear dues to emergency prisoners

Mumbai: months later resumed A pension scheme for those jailed during the Emergency, the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has decided to pay dues to the beneficiaries to make up for the period it was scrapped by the previous government.

According to a government resolution dated October 21 seen by ThePrint, the state government comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shinde’s Balasahebunchi Shiv Sena have set aside Rs 61.22 crore as dues of 3,339 beneficiaries of the scheme. The outstanding amount is for the period from 1st August 2020 to 31st July 2022.

Previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government , Which included Shiv Sena, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). , was finished Plan in July 2020 citing fiscal burden during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shinde-led government brought it back Within a month of coming to power in July this year.

A state government official, who did not wish to be named, said, “The present government was of the opinion that it would only be appropriate that the beneficiaries sanctioned under the scheme should get uninterrupted pension as per the 2018 decision. When the government decided to reinstate the scheme. decided, we also said that we will pay the dues for the period for which the scheme was scrapped.

“But we had to do some groundwork to reach the exact number and amount of beneficiaries. We collected data from district collectors for the same,” he told ThePrint.


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pension scheme

The scheme to give pension to the jailed people during the Emergency period of 1975-1977 was the first to launched Following in the footsteps of many other BJP governments in 2018, when Devendra Fadnavis of BJP was the Chief Minister.

Under this, those behind bars for more than a month get a pension of Rs 10,000 per month. On the death of such persons, their spouse will get a pension of Rs 5,000 per month.

Similarly, those who spend less than a month get a monthly pension of Rs 5,000, while their next of kin in the event of their death get a pension of Rs 2,500.

one of many reverse decisions

The present government has reversed more than half a dozen decisions of the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government, including the pension scheme.

One of the first decisions of the Shinde government was to revert to the controversial plan Make A metro car depot in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony, which Thackeray had as chief minister second place to Kanjurmarg in October 2020.

Last week also the Shinde-Fadnavis government resumed Consensus to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate in Maharashtra. MVA government was finished Consensus during their tussle with the BJP over the probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

The present government has also decided to roll back some of the other decisions of the previous Fadnavis-led government which were overturned by the MVA government – direct election The right to vote for farmers in elections to sarpanches and presidents of municipal councils, agricultural produce marketing committees, and Fadnavis’ pet project, Jalyukt Shivari PlanWith the aim of increasing the moisture content of the soil.

(Edited by Therese Sudeep)


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