Maharashtra cabinet doubles honorarium of Emergency-era prisoners to Rs 20 000

Mumbai, Jun 17 (PTI) The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday doubled the amount of monthly honorarium to Rs 20,000 to those individuals in the state who were imprisoned for more than a month during the Emergency period.
During the cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, it was also decided that in case of the death of such individuals, their surviving spouse will be given half the amount of the monthly honorarium.
The decisions were taken a week ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Emergency, a 21-month period from June 25, 1975 to March 21, 1977 declared by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Many persons were jailed for participating in the democratic resistance during that period.
During Fadnavis' first term as the chief minister, the Maharashtra government had introduced a policy called in 2018 to provide a monthly honorarium to such persons in recognition of their sacrifices under its "Gaurav Yojana".
At present, there are around 3,000 beneficiaries of the scheme in the state.
As per the revised policy, individuals who were imprisoned for more than one month during the Emergency will now receive Rs 20,000 per month, while their surviving spouse (in case of the death of the individual who was imprisoned) will be eligible for Rs 10,000 per month.
Those who were jailed for less than a month will receive Rs 10,000 per month, while their surviving spouse will get Rs 5,000.
In order to claim the honorarium, the surviving spouses must submit a fresh application to the respective District Collector offices. If the Emergency-era detainees passed away before January 2, 2018, their surviving spouse can still apply by submitting an affidavit along with the application, the chief minister's office (CMO) said in a statement.
The application window will remain open for 90 days from the issuance of the government resolution, it said.
The cabinet also scrapped the earlier condition that the applicant must have been at least 18 years old at the time of arrest during the Emergency, it added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)