The newly formed Kamal Nath led Congress Government in Madhya Pradesh is planning to scrap pension scheme for Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) detainees arrested during the Emergency between 1975 and 1977.
The pension scheme named ‘Loknayak Jayaprakash Samman Nidhi’ was introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government in 2008.
Reportedly, About 4,000 people in the state were arrested during the Emergency. As per the Provisions of the Scheme, In case a MISA detainee dies, the spouse is entitled to take 50 percent of the honorarium amount.
As per the rule which was amended in 2016, those who had spent more than a month in jail will get Rs 25,000 a month. The state government has been spending Rs 70 to 75 crore each year on MISA detainees.
Initially, before the amendment, those, who had spent over six months in jail, were entitled to get Rs 6,000 a month, while those, who were detained for three to six months, received Rs 3,000 a month.
But in 2012 amidst pressure from the pension recipients, the government hiked the amount to Rs 15,000 for the former, and to Rs 10,000 for the latter.
According to sources in the Government, the state government has prepared a bill to defy the existing pension scheme and is planning to table in the winter session of the assembly which is slated to begin from the first week of January 2019.
However, Congress has alleged that the scheme was launched only to benefit the RSS leaders and by striking it down the state government can save 70 to 75 crore a year.
The Madhya Pradesh Congress media in-charge Shobha Oza said, “Through this pension scheme, the BJP government has been feeding senior RSS leaders since 2008. This squandering of public money must stop when the state has a debt of around Rs 1.86 lakh crore.”
“The proposed Move embarked a Controversy”
The proposed move has embarked a new Controversy. Loktantra Senani Sanghatan’s Chairman and senior BJP leader Tapan Bhowmick has threatened to launch a state-wide protest and will also challenge the move in High Court. In a statement, he said, “If Madhya Pradesh government shuts the pension scheme, the association will knock on the High Court’s door, and will launch a protest. We did the same in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and we succeeded too.”
Madhya Pradesh’s former Chief Minister and BJP MLA from Budhni Shivraj Singh Chouhan is also among the beneficiaries scheme. He was just 16 in 1975 when the police arrested him during a demonstration at Chowk Bazaar of Sehore district. He was released after four months because of his young age.
The other biggies of BJP that are among the beneficiaries are – former Chief Minister Babulal Gaur, Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, former minister Ajay Vishnoi, Sharad Jain, Nagendra Singh Nagod, Ramkrishna Kusmaria, Rajya Sabha member Kailash Soni, Retired Justice and Deputy Lokayukta UC Maheshwari among others.
TIMELINE OF THE PENSION SCHEME
- In June 2008, the state government led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan had introduced a scheme for MISA detainees and had ordered to pay a pension of Rs 6,000 to those who had spent up to six months in the jail and Rs 3,000 to those who spent less than six months in jail.
- In 2012, the state government hiked the pension amount to Rs 15,000 (for imprisonment of six months and above) and Rs 10,000 (for imprisonment of less than six months) respectively amidst the pressure from MISA detainees’ association.
- In 2016, the state government again amended and issued a notification to pay Rs 25,000 to all those who had spent more than a month in prison during Emergency, and Rs 8,000 to those spent less than a month.
- In 2017, a controversy erupted regarding Union Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot that he had spent only 13 days in jail during the emergency, and getting Rs 25,000 a month. Later, the state government abolished the time limit rule and made those spent a day in the jail beneficiaries.
In June 2018, the BJP government turned this scheme into law by passing the Loktantra Senani Samman Adhiniyam 2018 in the summer session of the state assembly. Thus Kamal Nath Government has to bring a law in order to scrap it.