The Special privileged pension for Emergency time ‘jail inmates’ has been rolled back by the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu led State government of Himachal Pradesh. The scheme initiated by the previous BJP government was benefitting more than 700 political prisoners jailed during the declared emergency period.

The pension for political prisoners was ranging from Rs 12000 to 20000, depending on the period being jailed. (15 and more days). This scheme was under the ‘Loktantra Prehri Samman Rashi’.

It was constantly being opposed by the State Congress and after coming to power, the Congress MLAs demanded to stop the honorarium. Now the Council of Ministers approved the repeal of Himachal Pradesh ‘Loktantra Prahari Samman Act 2021’ and ‘Himachal Pradesh Loktantra Prahari Samman Rules 2022’.

Among those, who were entitled for this pension scheme include Former Chief minister Shanta Kumar, BJP leader Suresh Bhardwaj, Mahinder Nath Sofat and Shyama Sharma.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet also approved transfer of Rs 600 per student through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to all girls studying in classes I to VIII and boys belonging to SC, ST and BPL families.  This amount will be transferred to the name of these students or their mother for school uniform and about 3.70 lakh students of the state will be benefitted by this.