CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Assembly passed a bill raising allowances and facilities given to legislators, The legislation will mean an additional financial liability Of Rs I crore to the states exchequer which has hardly any money to pay toils vast bureau cracy its monthly salary, allowances and pensions.
The state has an accumulated debt liability of Rs 6744 crore. Most of this debt has arisen owing to the posting of lakhs of Indian security forces in Punjab. For about a decade they have fought the Sikh youths struggling for Khalistan. India pays handsomely its forces sent to Punjab and the expenditure credited to the state of Punjab as unsolicited loan. Nearly 90% of the forces are drawn from the Hindi heartland comprising Haryana, Rajasthan, U.P., Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
The bill providing for revised rates of compensatory allowance, constituency allowance, halting allowance, sumptuary allowance, car loan and telephone expenditure was piloted in the Punjab Assembly by the minister for parliamentary affairs, Umrao Singh. It was welcomed by the opposition Bahujan Samaj Party illegals tors while CP.L.s Birnla Dang objected to it. A BJP. legislate tor said that the government should have waived loans to the poor before raising allowances to legislators. The people, he said, would mock the conduct of the legislators.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 24, 1992
