ChandigarhOne hour ago
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Even before the historic announcement of the present CM of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann, former CM Parkash Singh Badal announced to give up the pension of the former MLA. He has been the CM of Punjab for 5 times. There were discussions about getting him about Rs 5 lakh as pension. Although no one ever officially accepted it. He won 10 assembly elections. However, this time he lost the election.
This has been tweeted by Akali Dal quoting Parkash Singh Badal. In which it was said that he requests the Punjab Government and the Speaker that whatever pension or allowances he got as a former MLA, should not be given. Instead it should be used for the interest of Punjab. He said that he is also sending a formal letter to the government in this regard.
AAP leader Harpal Cheema also submitted a demand letter to the then Speaker Rana KP for one MLA-one pension along with the MLAs.
The matter was raised in the Congress government
The issue of income tax had cropped up in the previous Congress government of Punjab. In which it was found through RTI that the Punjab government is paying the income tax of 93 MLAs including Parkash Singh Badal and Navjot Sidhu. In 4 years, the government led by Captain Amarinder Singh paid income tax of three and a half lakh crores. At that time the issue was raised that not only income tax but many MLAs are taking more than one pension due to repeated election. In which the first name was that of Parkash Singh Badal.
Then the leader of AAP’s opposition party, Cheema met the speaker.
At that time, the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party’s opposition party in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Cheema met the speaker. In which it was said that an MLA should get only one pension, no matter how many times he was elected. He also handed over a letter to the then speaker Rana KP. Now there is only Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab. Therefore it is also being discussed that Bhagwant Mann should not make any big announcement this time.