Bhubaneswar: The leader of the opposition (LoP) in the Odisha State Assembly, Pradip Nayak, Friday raised the issue of pension for the Emergency victims.
Referring to the news in India Whispers, Nayak said that it is a dishonour that the State government is going to cover the political leaders imprisoned during the 1970s Emergency Period under Madhubabu Pension Yojana.
Stating that the Andhra Pradesh governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan is a Emergency victim, will the government give him Rs 500 per month pension under the MS Pension Yojana.
He also pointed out that the State government has excluded the DIR detainees while preparing the list of Emergency victim. There were several top political leader who were detained under DIR during the Emergency period, he said and added, it would not be fair to exclude them from the pension scheme.
He urged the speaker to direct the government to prepare a list of the political prisoners detained under MISA and DIR during the Emergency period and introduce a honourable pension scheme for them. He said that States like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Maharastra have introduced Ganatantra Senani Samman Rules and are paying Rs 5000 to Rs 25,000 per month as pension.
India Whispers had carried a story about the State government’s decision to provide pension to only MISA detainees during Emergency.
