The Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has discontinued the decade-long practice of felicitating those detained during the Emergency, under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and Defence of India Rules (DIR), on Independence Day.
In 2008, the then BJP government had introduced a monthly pension of Rs 6,000 for MISA and DIR detainees and started felicitating them in Bhopal and at district headquarters. It later hiked the pension twice to make it Rs 25,000, on par with the amount given to freedom fighters.
Two weeks after Chief Minister Kamal Nath took oath in December 2018, the Congress government put the pension on hold. The government also ordered physical verification of beneficiaries while claiming that many did not exist and others had availed the benefit fraudulently.
However, after months of verification, most beneficiaries have started getting the pension again.