Ranchi, Sep 18 (Inditop.com) In the eight months since president’s rule was imposed in Jharkhand, state legislators have been getting their basic salary and medical expenses without having to do any work.
President’s rule was imposed Jan 19 and since then the state assembly has been kept under suspended animation.
Under suspended animation, a legislator gets a salary of Rs.8,000 plus Rs.3,000 for medical facilities every month.
When the assembly is meeting, a legislator gets Rs.42,000 per month which includes many allowances. The allowances are retracted under suspended animation nor do legislators get the Local Area Development (LAD) fund which they get every year for development of their constituencies. In Jharkhand, each legislator gets Rs.3 crore for LAD.
Jharkhand had 82 legislators when president’s rule was imposed in the state. It now has 43 after 22 legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) resigned Sep 9 in support of their demand for early elections.
According to sources in the state assembly secretariat, the legislators have been paid Rs.6 million against their salary in the last eight months.
“We never wanted to draw our salary without work. Under suspended animation, legislators are stripped of all their facilities and development fund. The central government is deliberately delaying elections in the state,” said Raghubar Das, state BJP president.
“We want early elections to install a popular government,” he added.
Cutting across party lines, most legislators are in favour of early elections.
“A legislator is relevant only if there is a popular government in the state. We find it difficult to face people and our party workers of the constituency. We cannot be part of development as everything is decided by the governor and officials of the government,” said a Congress legislator, speaking on condition of anonymity.
rounak