Rs. 50,000 pension was under the ‘Yash Bharati Samman’ Award, not for supporting the government - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 7, 2020
A post is being shared widely on social media with a claim that 172 Bollywood celebrities used to receive Rs. 50,000 monthly from the Uttar Pradesh government, till 2017, for giving Akhilesh government a positive coverage on media and social media. But, CM Yogi Adityanath has stopped the monthly pension. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
172 Bollywood celebrities received Rs 50000 monthly till 2017 from the UP government for giving Akhilesh government a positive coverage on media and social media. CM Yogi stopped the payment.
Fact: The 172 beneficiaries were receiving the pension as they have been awarded by the ‘Yash Bharati Samman’, not for giving the government a positive coverage on media and social media. All of them were not  Bollywood celebrities. There are eminent personalities from various fields like art, literature, films, science, etc. Also, the Yogi government has not stopped the pensions completely. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
In the post, one of the users has commented with a link to the ‘Times of India’ article. In the article, it can be read that the 172 beneficiaries were receiving the Rs. 50,000 pension as the ‘Yash Bharati Samman’ has been awarded to them not for giving the Akhilesh government a positive coverage on media and social media.  The details about the scheme can be read on the webpage of UP’s Culture Department. In the pension list (2016) of awardees, it can be seen that the award is given to eminent personalities from various fields like art, literature, films, science, etc. So, the pension was not just restricted to Bollywood celebrities.
Also, the Yogi government has not stopped the pensions completely. According to the 2018 rules regarding the pension under the scheme, the amount of pension has been reduced to Rs. 25,000 and additional criteria (not available to government servants, government pensioners, and income taxpayers) have been added to become eligible for the pension.
To sum it up, Rs. 50,000 monthly pension was given under the ‘Yash Bharati Samman’ Award, not for supporting the government. All of them are not Bollywood celebrities. Also, the Yogi government brought some changes to the pension rules. They did not completely stop them.
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