The lawmakers of Haryana certainly seem to believe charity begins at home. They also seem to believe that, in order to serve the people efficiently, they need as many perquisites as possible. That might explain why they recently managed to corner a generous pension system, which could make them role models for their peers in other states. Thanks to a six per cent recent increase in dearness allowance for pensioners, a former member of the legislative assembly or MLA in Haryana is entitled to a basic monthly pension of Rs 10,000 plus Rs 5,000 of dearness pension. The applicable dearness allowance (DA) rate (218 per cent) is then added to it. If an MLA has served multiple terms in the Assembly, an additional pension of Rs 1,500 is added for every extra year served after completing a term of five years. According to this formula, if a member has served five full terms (25 years), he is entitled to a basic pension of Rs 45,000 plus DA. The actual pension at the current rate of DA of 218 per cent will work out to Rs 1,43,100 a month. Then there are other benefits such as medical facilities, loan and travel entitlements.
That's not all. An MLA would be eligible for pension even if he has served only one day. Which means a 25-year-old can get a generous pension for the rest of his life even if he has served as an MLA just for a day. Did anyone imagine that pensions are a fund into which payments are made during a person's employment years, and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work? Other states have not been as generous as Haryana - though in most cases the amounts aren't piffling either. For example, Chhattisgarh gives its former MLAs Rs 16,000 a month for their first tenure, which increases with additional years served. This is apart from monthly medical allowance and air as well as rail travel coupons worth Rs 1.5 lakh in a year. The Punjab government isn't far behind even though "high salaries and pension bills" eating into its revenue had held the state government back from increasing its employees' salaries. Then there are states such as Maharashtra, Delhi, Goa and many others, which have made their MLAs eligible to get two government pensions. There have been a number of MLAs who were government employees prior to joining politics and who draw a pension on that account. However, when they retired as legislators, they were not eligible for MLA pensions. That anomaly has since been corrected. A reply to an application filed under the Right To Information (RTI) Act also revealed that sitting Members of Parliament (MP) who have been MLAs can continue drawing pension as a former member of an assembly despite drawing salary as an MP. The RTI reply also revealed that no one has kept track of the current MPs who have been drawing pension as former assembly members.
MLAs should certainly be rewarded for their hard work. But what emerges starkly is that the principle of pension-pay relativity (usually pension is calculated as a percentage of one's salary) has been ignored by legislators when it comes to taking care of their post-retirement life. MLAs have been notably quick workers when it comes to rewarding themselves. A couple of years ago, the Maharashtra Assembly passed a law in favour of increasing their monthly pension to Rs 40,000 within just two minutes of the Bill being tabled in the Assembly. It is a different matter that the increase added an annual burden of Rs 30 crore on the state exchequer at a time its financial position was shaky. Though it is a tough argument to sell, India's legislators are convinced that they should be able to build their pensions faster than anyone else because of the "public service" they have to do and for that, self-help is the best way to go.
