BAREILY: An RTI query has revealed that the UP government in 2016-17 spent Rs 10.32 crore to give monthly pension of Rs 50,000 each to 172 beneficiaries who have been awarded the Yash Bharti Samman. The award is given for gaining eminence in the fields of films, art, literature, science, journalism and sport.The list of beneficiaries include prominent personalities like actor and UP Congress chief Raj Babbar , his wife Nadira Raj Babbar, film makers Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bhardwaj, cricketers Suresh Raina and Mohd Kaif, actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, singer Kailesh Kher and comedian Raju Shrivastava.Actor Rajpal Yadav, Amitabh Bachchan and his family have refused to take the pension. Bareilly-based RTI activist Mohd Khalid Jilani said that the government was wasting public money by giving pension to those celebrities. Jilani appealed to UP CM Yogi Adityanath to stop giving pension under this scheme.Jilani who received the reply to the query last week had sought a list of beneficiaries who have been awarded with Yash Bharti Samman, one of the highest awards of the state. The culture directorate of UP government in the reply stated that 187 persons have been felicitated from 1994 to March, 2016 while 64 persons received the award in October last year.However, the reply also revealed that 172 beneficiaries received monthly pension from the state government under this scheme in 2016-17. The names, current address, bank account and PAN card details of beneficiaries who received Rs 50,000 per month is also mentioned in the RTI. Other prominent people who receive monthly pensions are film director Muzaffar Ali, singers Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Malini Awasthi and Anoop Jalota, founder and manager of CMS schools Jagdish Gandhi and IPS officer and mountaineer Aparna Kumar.However, 12 personalities who have refused to accept pension under this scheme are actors Amitabh Bachchan, his wife Jaya Bachchan , his son Abhishek Bachchan, Shabana Azmi and Rajpal Yadav, Naresh Trehan who is chairman and managing director of Medanta, flute player Hari Prasad Chaurasiya, shooter Jaspal Rana, wrestler Vishambhar Singh, journalist Vijay Kumar , Dr Rakesh Yadav and volleyball player Ranveer Singh.Jilani told TOI, “The list of beneficiaries who receive monthly pension include Jahid Hasan ‘Wasim Barelvi’ who is Urdu poet and MLC and is already receiving allowance from UP Vidhan Parishad. Instead of spending crores on affluent dignitaries, the money can be utilised in welfare projects.”He added, “According to section 8 (1) of monthly pension of Yash Bharti Samman rule 2015, the state government can cancel pension without giving notice or explanation to beneficiaries. I appeal to CM Yogi Adityanath to discontinue pension under this section.”Apart from monthly pension, the recipient of the award gets Rs 11 lakh, a shawl and a citation. Started by Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1994, Yash Bharti Samman was discontinued by Mayawati government but Akhilesh Yadav resumed it in 2013. In October 2015, government announced that it will give monthly pension to awardees.