Mitul Pradeep, daughter of late Hindi poet Pradeep who penned the famous song ‘‘Aye mere watan ke logon’’, today filed a PIL in the Bombay High Court seeking a direction to Saregama India Ltd to pay the Union Government royalty derived from this musical score for the welfare of Army jawans and their widows.The PIL will come up for hearing before Acting Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice S.U. Kamdar on June 30.The PIL claimed it had been agreed between Pradeep, Saregama India and composer C. Ramachandra that the royalty from the sale of cassettes and records would go to the disabled Army personnel, widows and orphans fund of the Union Government.The music company had failed to give details about the royalty paid by it to the government, the PIL claimed. It urged for a direction to the Centre to disclose on affidavit the amount it received as royalty that accrued on this song. The PIL said after the Indo-China war, the film industry decided to organise a programme to highlight the sacrifices made by Armymen. Music composers like Naushad and Madan Mohan offered to present patriotic songs. C. Ramachandra had no such song to offer. He asked Pradeep to pen a song for this occasion and he wrote ‘‘Aye mere watan ke logon’’.
