New Delhi, November 27: As the war of nerves in Parliament on whether ‘to have or not to have’ a JPC on the 2G-Raja spectrum scam continues, the Congress MPs decided to shame the Opposition by forgoing their daily allowance as no work is taking place following disruptions.
The winter session of Parliament failed to transact any substantive business for the 11th eleventh day on Friday. When the session is on, a fully functioning Parliament approximately costs the taxpayer a whopping Rs 7 crore a day.
The Congress has 207 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 71 members in the Rajya Sabha. Of them 80 have already sent in their letters to the presiding officers conveying their decision to not accept their daily allowances of Rs 2,000 till Parliament starts functioning. This apparent high moral ground has been claimed to lessen the fruitless expenditure.
It was projected by the Government as a move to press the Opposition, but the Congress MPs claim that they do not want to be blamed by the ‘aam admi’ in their constituencies for drawing pay without work. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal said the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi, were one of the first few to send in their letters.
–Agencies