Chandigarh, November 22, 2017: The Haryana Government, as a mark of honour and respect, to the people of Haryana, who took part in Hindi Aandolan of 1957, announced to provide a monthly pension of Rs.10,000 to the Matribhasha Satyagrahis.
While stating this, an official spokesman said that in 1957, a number of people of Hindi speaking parts of erstwhile Punjab launched a crusade for the honour, promotion and implementation of their mother tongue. This movement helped a lot in creation of Haryana as a separate State. During this Satyagrah, Mr. Sumer Singh, a resident of village Naya Bans, district Rohtak even lost his life.
He said that the Matribhasha Satyagrahis were identified by constituting committees in all the districts of the State under the chairmanship of concerned Deputy Commissioners. The Committees got the record of Matribhasha Satyagrahis verified from the concerned Superintendents of Police by verifying their record from the jails. The Government has already identified 194 Matribhasha Satyagrahis.
He said that a Satyagrahi, getting pension or honorarium of any kind from any other State Government would also be eligible. However, if an otherwise eligible Satyagrahi was getting pension from any other State Government for the same purpose of an amount less than Rs.10,000 per month, the entitlement of pension under this scheme would be reduced by that amount. He said that in case of demise of any of the Satyagrahi, the monthly pension would continue to be given to his/her surviving spouse.
While giving details of Pension Scheme for journalists, the spokesman said that the Cabinet approved to provide a monthly pension of Rs.10,000 to the accredited media persons of daily, evening, weekly, fortnightly, monthly newspapers, news agencies, Radio stations, news channels above the age of 60 years with at least 20 years of experience in the field of journalism. The media person should also have been accredited with State’s Information, Public Relations and Languages Department for at least last five years.
He said that the media person, getting pension or honorarium of any kind from any other State Government or news organisation would also be eligible. However, if an otherwise eligible media person was getting pension from any other State Government of an amount less than Rs.10,000 per month, the entitlement of pension under this scheme would be reduced by that amount. He clarified that in case of demise of beneficiary media person, the monthly pension will continue to be given to his or her spouse, as the case may be, in case he or she was not getting any salary, wages, pension or any other regular financial assistance from any organisation or the State Government.