Loktantra Prahari Samman Rashi

• The Himachal Pradesh High Court has ordered the state government to release the withheld honorarium of democracy guards.
• Judge Sandeep Sharma, accepting the petition of Himachal Pradesh Loktantra Senani Sangh, ordered the release of honorarium to the members of the Sangh.
• The court made it clear that as long as the law related to the Loktantra Prahari Samman Rashi is in force, the government cannot stop this amount.
• Himachal Pradesh government has withheld the honorarium of democracy fighters from February 2023. Under this, about 80 people are given 12 to 20 thousand rupees every month.

ABOUT SCHEME:

• The former BJP government had made the Himachal Pradesh Loktantra Prahari Samman Rashi Scheme in 2019.
• To give legal recognition to the scheme, Himachal Pradesh Loktantra Prahari Samman Act was passed in 2021.
• Its objective is to provide Samman Rashi to the people (democracy guards) who were lodged in jails or police stations during the emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government.
• Emergency was declared in the country by the Indira Gandhi government. During the Emergency, between 25 June 1975 and 21 March 1977, all the people of the state were imprisoned for political reasons. He is to be given an honorarium under the ‘Loktantra Prahari Samman Rashi’ scheme.