The Punjab government on Friday announced a change in the pension formula for its former legislators, saying they would be entitled to pension for only one term in the Legislative Assembly and not for multiple terms.
The decision came in the wake of several legislators drawing multiple pensions for each term they served.
Making the announcement, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said crores of rupees were being spent on MLAs’ pension, which would now be spent on public welfare.
He said people would be astonished to know that several MLAs who had been elected for three, five or even six terms, were getting monthly pensions worth lakhs of rupees. “Some are getting ₹3.5 lakh, some ₹4.5 lakh, some ₹5.25 lakh – this puts burden on the State exchequer. There are some who draw pensions on account of being former Member of Parliament as well as former MLA. So, the government has decided that an MLA will get a pension for one term only,” he said.
Last week, former Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron Parkash Singh Badal had announced that he would forego his pension and asked the government and the Punjab Assembly Speaker to divert his pension towards social work.
Mr. Badal stated that he had never drawn any pension all his life as he had remained an active legislator from the beginning. The former Chief Minister also dismissed as “amusing propaganda that he had availed of crores worth of pension in the past by virtue of being an 11-time legislator”.
Congress MLA Pargat Singh welcomed the decision. “This will reduce the burden on Punjab’s finances. As the main Opposition, we will continue to play a constructive and responsible role. Punjab comes first to us,” he tweeted.
