Yash Bharti awardees, ’Bachchan family’, request UP govt to give their Rs 50k monthly pe

New Delhi, 21 Oct 2015: Yash Bharti Samman, which is the highest honour in UP state has raised many a brows as it becomes the first institution to award a monthly pension of Rs 50000 to its recipients, way too higher than what several government officials too receive. Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, along with wife Jaya and son Abhishek Bachchan will be the first beneficiaries of the new pension scheme announced by the state government.

 

However, the Bachchan family with all humility has asked that the Uttar Pradesh government to use the Rs 50,000 monthly ’pension’ awarded to each of them towards any noble charitable scheme or cause that benefits the poor and the needy.

 

It is also reported that Bachchan would be writing to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in this regard, separately.

 

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday announced that as per the revised avatar of the award all the recipients of Yash Bharti Samman would be given Rs. 50,000 as monthly pension. Earlier, the Yash Bharti awardees would get Rs 5 lakhs, but in its revised avatar, recipients are given a cash award of Rs 11 lakh, a shawl and a citation. The award is given to people who have made notable achievements in the fields of films, art, literature and sport and there is no fixed number of recipients who can be accorded with the award each year.

 

Institutionalized in the year 1994 noted poet and litterateur Harivansh Rai Bachchan was the first person to have been conferred with the award. The award is given by the department of culture and is discontinued whenever the Samajwadi Party is not in power.

 

The award has raised many a brows that the state which has a per capita annual income of just over Rs 40,000 is spending this much on giving monthly pensions to those who do not even need it.

 

The pension scheme for Yash Bharti recipients is also among the most lucrative schemes in the country. The families of the freedom fighters are paid a monthly sum of Rs 20,129 per month, under the Freedom Fighters pension Scheme, unmarried and unemployed daughters of freedom fighters receive Rs 4,770 per month. In cases where freedom fighters had two spouses, beneficiaries are entitled to Rs 10,064 per month. A Government of India pension scheme for old and poor artists, being implemented by UP’s department of culture, awards a sum of Rs 2,000 per month to performing artists who have earned a living through the profession for at least 10 years. India’s cricket board pays Rs 15,000 to cricketers who’ve played at least 25 first class matches, while a maximum of Rs 50,000 per month is awarded to former test cricketers who’ve played at least 100 Test matches.