September 15, 2020
Saugata Roy speaks on The Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Bill, 2020
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sir, I support in general the resolution brought by the Minister to amend The Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954. In fact, I would like for the salary to be deducted even more. In fact, I have given an amendment proposing for the deduction to be increased from 30 to 35 per cent.
Our party’s stand is that we support your decision to take away as much money as you can from MPs. And anyway, we are seen as easy targets. We may be saying that we are doing a big thing by foregoing our salaries but one Honourable Member told me that the saving is only to the tune of Rs 54 crore.
I’m saying that you take away all our salaries but you please give us our MPLAD funds. You cannot deduct the MPLAD funds. Why should you target MPs? Ministers can spend any amount of money they want. We MPs are all making our small contributions to our constituencies through our work, which are as per the demands of the people of our constituencies. You are taking away that right.
It cannot be that just because Prime Minister Narendra Modi has 303 MPs, other parties’ MPs have no value. Aur kya yeh BJP mein koi aadmi nehi hain jo khada ho ke bole ki yeh anyay hain, hamare MPLAD nahin lena chahiye? Main to janna chahta hoon, agar loktantra hain toh BJP party ke andar se awaaz uthna chahiye ki MPLAD rakhna hain. Don’t take it away, and if possible, even increase the amount.
Kalyan Banerjee has mentioned a problem about allocation from MPLAD fund. I have a similar problem. I gave Rs 50 lakh to a newly set up COVID hospital in my constituency. That money has not yet gone to the district magistrate from the Centre. The Centre is holding back the money which was given last year. This is most unfortunate. I think the government needs to, instead of making this token gesture of deducting MPLAD funds, cut down on bigger expenses.
Do you know, Sir, how much money has been allocated for creating a new vista for Parliament? Rs 20,000 crore! It is being designed by one Ahmedabad-based architect, Bimal Patel. Rs 20,000 crore will be the cost. On the other hand, you are taking away petty sums from the MPs. Is this the way to show that the government is practising frugality? I am very sorry to say, but it is not.
How much does the Prime Minister’s personal Embraer aircraft cost? This should be brought before the people. If you want to save money and spend that on COVID-19 patients, that is good, and is necessary as well, but the government must make big gestures and not make us poor MPs its target. Just because the BJP members cannot speak, it doesn’t mean the voice of the Parliament can be stifled. The MPLAD funds should be kept intact. You take away all our salary-related money but give us our MPLAD funds.
Thank you, Sir.
