Himchal Budget Session: Act repealed, honorarium for Emergency detainees goes
Pratibha Chauhan
Shimla, April 3
The BJP staged a walkout from the Vidhan Sabha today against the government decision to repeal the Loktantra Prahari Samman Act. People, who were jailed during Emergency, were given honorarium under the Act.
There were heated exchanges as the Bill to repeal the Act enacted by the previous BJP government was debated in the Assembly. The BJP legislators asked the government to reconsider its decision to repeal the Act and walked out of the House.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Chauhan said that a majority of the recipients of the honorarium were well off people, who were getting more than one pension, and giving them honorarium amounted to misuse of government money. “The state’s financial position does not permit the continuation of this honorarium, which entails an annual burden of Rs 3.43 crore,” he added.
Chauhan said that these persons were arrested only as a preventive measure to avert a law and order situation but an attempt had been made to politicise the issue. “The previous BJP government had announced Rs 8,000 and Rs 12,000 for those who were jailed during Emergency but later some people hailing from other states, who were imprisoned in Himachal, were added to the list,” he alleged.
Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur said that thousands of people were put behind bars during Emergency and several states decided to provide honorarium. The number of such people in Himachal was around 80. He added that since a scheme could have been easily denotified, his government decided to provide them honorarium by enacting an Act, which should not be repealed.
Thakur said, “Please do not repeal the Act passed during our regime as democracy is important for all.” He rejected the charge that the law was enacted to benefit RSS members. He added that Jai Prakash Narain, Mulayam Singh Yadav and George Fernandes, who were imprisoned during Emergency, were not RSS members.
Una legislator Satpal Satti said, “Reconsider the decision to repeal this Act. We all must respect democracy. People from various political ideologies had participated in the freedom struggle and facts must not be distorted.”
