Haryana approves pension for Hindi agitation activists, journalists

Chandigarh, Nov 22 (IANS) The Haryana government on Wednesday announced to provide a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 to "Matribhasha Satyagrahis" (Hindi agitators) and media persons.

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 had helped a lot in creation of Haryana as a separate state, he said, adding that during this Satyagrah, Sumer Singh, a resident of village Naya Bans in district Rohtak even lost his life.

According to the spokesman, Matribhasha Satyagrahis were identified by constituting committees in all the districts of the state. The government has already identified 194 Matribhasha Satyagrahis.

The state government also announced that it would give a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 to the accredited media persons of Haryana, both based at state headquarters of Chandigarh and at district level, above the age of 60 years with at least last five years of accreditation.

The proposal has been approved by the state cabinet, which met here on Wednesday.

Monthly pension will be given to the accredited media persons of daily, evening, weekly, fortnightly and monthly newspapers, news agencies, radio stations and 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.

The spokesman said that in case of demise of beneficiary media person, the monthly pension would 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.

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