Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Mar 07, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Mar 07, 2003 |
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Opinion
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Letters Drain on exchequer
Though India is a poor country, the legislators and ministers get a lot of benefits and allowances. Every legislator gets free rail and air travel for himself and his spouse. He gets a house, medical facilities, foreign exchange quota and diplomatic passport. He is allowed three telephones with 50,000 free calls per year from each. Any legislator who has been a member of any House for a year, is entitled to pension for life and rail-passes on a life-time basis. There are 545 MPs in the Lok Sabha, 250 in the Rajya Sabha and thousands of MLAs who enjoy all these at our expense. A resolution adopted at a meeting presided over by the Chief Justice of India wants the judiciary to be exempted from paying income and other taxes and electricity and other water taxes. The four pillars of democracy are the legislature, executive, judiciary and the army. Since Indira Gandhi's time, the first two have seen a steady erosion in values. But our judiciary was always held up as a beacon of fairplay and integrity. Now, as the former Chief Justice, Mr Sam Bharucha, said before his retirement, even this pillar has cracked. Gopala Krishnan Arumuganeri (TN)
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