Ex-MPs’ pension costs exchequer Rs 70.50 cr

Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 5

The Government of India is spending a sum of Rs 70.50 crore on monthly pension being paid to former MPs, which includes film stars and renowned industrialists.

Information received under the Right to Information Act by PP Kapoor, an RTI activist from Samalkha (Panipat), reveals that actress Vyjayanthimala gets Rs 39,000 and Rekha and Chiranjivi get Rs 27,000 each as monthly pension.

Industrialists Sanjay Dalmia and Rahul Bajaj get Rs 25000 each. R Sarathkumar, actor-turned-politician from Tamil Nadu, is the only former MP in the history of the country to have refused to accept the pension. Jailed ex-MPs Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Singh Chautala get as pension Rs 20,000 and Rs 26,000, respectively. BSP supremo Mayawati gets Rs 47,000, Sitaram Yechuri Rs 39,000 and Mani Shankar Aiyer Rs 55,000. The pension amount being paid to former MPs has increased from Rs 58.02 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 70.50 crore in 2018-19, an increase of 21.5 per cent, according to the information received by Kapoor.

“While the number of ex-MP pensioners put up by Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats is 4,796, the Central Pension Accounting Office’s figure is 1,470 only,” said Kapoor.

According to information provided by K Sona, Deputy Secretary, Lok Sabha secretariat, 3,580 ex-MPs are getting pension, while 268 dependents of the deceased ex-MPs are getting family pension. P Narayanan from Rajya Sabha secretariat, in his reply, said 508 former MPs are getting monthly pension and 219 dependents family pension.