Delhi Announces Pensions For People Jailed During Emergency

The BJP government in Delhi will provide pensions to those who were political prisoners during the Emergency and felicitate them, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said on Tuesday.

She said this at an event held at the Delhi Secretariat to provide job letters to the family of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims.

Previous governments did not provide any relief to those who were kept in jails for months to safeguard democracy during the Emergency imposed in the country, Ms Gupta said.

"Our government has decided to provide pensions to the loktantra senanis (political prisoners). They will be felicitated and honoured by the Delhi government as many others states do," she said.

The Congress government in the country imposed national emergency under the Constituional provision of Article 352, during 1975-77.

Several states in the country, including those ruled by the BJP like UP and MP, provide pensions to those who were jailed during the Emergency in 1975-77.

Many BJP leaders and politicians of other opposition parties were imprisoned during the Emergency declared by the then Congress government of Indira Gandhi.

The Delhi unit of BJP on March 21 this year felicitated Emergency detainees at a 'Loktantra Vijay Divas' event held at the New Delhi Municipal Council's convention centre.

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