A govt by and for leaders

The Punjab Assembly has cleared housing plots at concessional rates for MLAs in Mohali. After the hefty salary hike this is another issue on which the ruling and opposition MLAs were united. The resolution was passed at the last minute without discussion on Wednesday. The matter was not on the agenda. When the Hooda government gave every Haryana MLA a 14-marla plot at a concessional rate in Panchkula, the decision was struck down by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Obviously, none in the government or even in the Opposition applied his mind on the issue or even bothered to study the court judgment in the Haryana case or cared for public reaction. 

The elected leaders of a near-bankrupt state now get salaries, which according to reports, are the highest in the country. Their pay and perks are tax free (state government pays their income tax) and include official accommodation, free car and helicopter rides, medical reimbursement for treatment in government as well as five-star private hospitals. For personal gain anything goes, even laws can be bent. In violation of the law limiting the number of ministers a large number of posts of chief parliamentary secretary have been created for out-of-work MLAs. Courts have found these posts redundant and dubbed them "a fraud on the Constitution". Many loss-making boards and corporations are burdened with political appointees. Even advisers have been given ministerial status and benefits. Those still left out are made "halqa in-charge", another illegality, with the SHOs under them. Politicians have monoplised businesses such as liquor, TV channels, transport and sand/gravel mining to make money. 

Earlier, Punjab MLAs had formed a housing society at Kansal, near Chandigarh. They reportedly got the curbs on construction lifted and each allegedly profited when the 21-acre society land was sold to a Tata company. The beneficiaries included members of the legislature across the political spectrum. Now they are back with another housing project near Chandigarh. Concessional housing for the poor is understandable. But plots for MLAs, that too in Mohali where land prices are sky-high? It will be another windfall at the taxpayers’ expense.