Too many pensions for top leaders

Law Kumar Mishra

Patna: On June 25,1975,  emergency was imposed following  JP led movement .This led to arrest of many leaders associated with the movement.In Bihar too, several students and political leaders ,many of them occupied key positions at national and state levels, were arrested.

When Nitish Kumar came to power, he introduced a pension scheme for the Senanis (fighters) of total reovolution and it ranged from Rs 2,500 to Rs 5,000 per month depending on the duration of imprisonment.Last year, it was raised to Rs 10,000 per month with retrospective effect of July 2007. Bihar government’s home(special) department relases pension to the tune of Rs 2.43 crore every month.
The list of Senanis getting pension includes CM Nitish Kumar, RJD president and former CM Lalu Prasad, union food and consumer affairs minster and LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan, union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, another former chief minister Ram Sundar Das, former union minister Devendra Prasad Yadav who is president of state unit of Samajwadi party,  another former union rural development minister and RJD national vice president Raghuwansh Prasad Singh and former deputy chief miniseter and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, former  Road Construction department minister and BJP MLA Nand Kishore Yadav.
The list of 3,008 beneficiaries called Senanis  include the finance minister Abdul Bari Sidiqqui and his wife Nutan Sinha, rural development minister Shrawan Kumar, irrigation minister Lallan Singh, state JD(U) president and MP Bashistha Narain Singh, former minister Narendra Singh , former JD(U) MP  and once national spokesman of party- Shivananad Tiwari,former Bihar Pradesh Congress cheif and minister Ramjatan Sinha,former ministers Ram Jiwan Singh and ex MPs Vijay Krishna and Ramdev Bhandari, Ashok Kumar Singh, Mithilesh Kumar Singh, Kaushalya Devi,Bikam Kuer, senior Mumbai based journalist  Kumr Prashant and his wife Janki Devi, anotehr Delhi based senior journalist -Ram Bahadur Rai , Bhoodan Yajna committee chairman Kumar Shubhmurti.
Officials in the home (special) department said the list is expanded periodically after getting recommendations of an advisory commttee set up by the chief minister. Senanis are entitled to free medical treatment in government and its approved hospitals and free bus travel inside the state.
In their affidavits in Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state legislature elections, 90 % of the beneficiary leaders have claimed their assets were worth more than Rs one crore. Some of them are getting pension as ex MPs and ex legislators and also as former teachers in the universities. Nitish and Lalu have been members of both state legislature and parliament too.