Anurag shows way on no work, no pay

As Parliament failed to transact any business for the seventh consecutive working day on Wednesday, BJP MP from Hamirpur Anurag Thakur on Wednesday informed Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar about his decision not to claim his salary and allowance for the period.

“I have written to the Speaker that I will not claim the daily allowance the day the House does not function,” Thakur told reporters. Son of Himachal Pradesh CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, Thakur is the first MP to have taken such a decision in the troubled Winter Session that started on November 22.

After a hike in August last year, the monthly salary of an MP went up to Rs50,000 from Rs16,000. The daily allowance when Parliament is in session was also doubled from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 per day. Then there are the constituency and office allowances, which have been doubled to R 40,000 per month.

According to an estimate, the per hour cost of running Parliament comes around Rs25 lakh and going by that figure a few crore rupees have already been lost in last seven days. Starting at 11 am both Houses of Parliament work till 6 pm on a normal day, including an hour long lunch break.

Another young BJP member Varun Gandhi had on Tuesday expressed dismay at repeated disruption in Parliamentary proceedings. Gandhi wrote on his Twitter account, “6th straight day of no work. Current Lok Sabha has had fewest working hours since 1985. I feel silly, getting paid to sit around, drink coffee in Central Hall”, adding, “Time has indeed come for ‘no work, no pay’ for MPs if minimum hours of business not transacted.”