This article is regarding a story published in an English daily about the perks and privileges given to the parliamentarians. The story was well-written and very convincing and forced me to do a bit of research on the topic. It was one of the few occasions that I could use my internet for gathering some important information rather than watching YouTube videos and updating statuses on Facebook.
To my surprise, the story was contrary to facts. The facts included that every member of the assembly was paid Rs 54,000 per month without any daily allowance, 20 air tickets to the capital and back home, no telephone bills or any other utility bills are paid, no free transportation, no office maintenance allowance given and the children’s educational fees are not paid. The story published stated quite to the contrary.
I personally feel stories like these contribute in maligning the democratic setup and dishearten the parliamentarians. On the other hand, the Indian parliamentarians receive about Rs 85000 monthly as well as Rs 3500 daily allowance. Other facilities given to the Indians MPs include daily allowance of Rs 750 for a personal secretary, free rail transport all over India and free air tickets for attending assembly sessions, free telephone calls and free electricity. The total that Indian government is spending on one MP is about Rs 380000.
After reading what the Indian’s MP gets, I was surprised and shocked that India spends so much on its parliamentarians. But this also made me think that if they are given all the facilities, they will work in a more effective manner and this shall reduce the corruption rate. A 16thgrade bureaucrat is given more salary than a parliamentarian, not counting the perks and privileges. A parliamentarian is an elective representative and certainly deserves more. We as a nation criticise our politicians regardless of knowing the facts but would never try to understand the difficulties they face. We should not criticise the system for the sake of criticism always but give it time to evolve into a mature setup.
MAJID TAIMOOR
Lahore
