Pension for state residents jailed during Emergency

₹10,000 MONTHLY PENSION WILL BE GIVEN TO EMERGENCY VICTIMS UNDER HARYANA STATE SHUBHRA JYOTSNA PENSION SCHEME

CHANDIGARH: Haryana residents imprisoned during the Emergency will get ₹10,000 monthly pension, the state Cabinet decided on Wednesday.

Giving nod to Haryana State Shubhra Jyotsna Pension and Other Facilities Scheme, 2018, that will come into force retrospectively from November 1, 2017, the cabinet also decided that those who did not have Haryana domicile and were arrested/jailed in Haryana during the Emergency between June 25, 1975, and March 21, 1977, will also be eligible for this pension scheme.

The spokesperson said that if a beneficiary is receiving any honorarium or salary from the state government, he or she will not be eligible for this pension. This policy will also be applicable to widows of such persons.

But the Emergency sufferers who are getting pension or honorarium of any kind from any other state government will also be eligible. “Those residents of Haryana who had struggled during the Emergency period and faced imprisonment even for one day under MISA Act or Defence of India Act, 1972, and rules framed thereunder will be eligible to avail the benefit of the scheme,” a government spokesperson said.

The pension will be canceled in case of conviction by the court on charges of moral turpitude or for providing false information or affidavit.

The beneficiary will have to produce a jail certificate issued by the jail superintendent concerned and countersigned by the district magistrate. In case any such person is unable to produce the jail certificate due to record missing or being unavailable, he may produce a certificate from two co-prisoners. Such a certificate of co-prisoners must be authenticated by an MLA or MP of the concerned district.

The spokesperson said that such emergency sufferers will have to open an Aadhaar-linked saving bank account in any nationalised bank to transfer the amount of pension to their bank accounts and have to give a ‘live certificate’ in the month of January every year as is being followed in the case of other pensioners.

In case an otherwise eligible Emergency sufferer is getting a pension from any other state government for the same purpose of an amount less than ₹10,000 per month, the entitlement of pension under this scheme would be reduced by that amount. In case of death of any of the Emergency sufferers, the monthly pension will continue to be given to his or her surviving spouse.