It is rarely seen in the politics of the country when the parties and the opposition appear united on any issue. However, when it comes to their benefits, leaders do seem to stand together. One such case is the pension of MLAs. In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party government led by Bhagwant Mann has taken a big step. It has decided that no matter how many times a leader is an MLA, he will get only one pension.
Earlier, the number of times a leader became an MLA here, the pension was assured. Not only in Punjab but also in other states of the country. Now in Bihar itself, pension has been increased 13 times in 16 years. Not only this, politicians who are serving sentences in cases like murder, rape and scam are getting five lakh pension every month. These include eight leaders including former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
13 amendments after 2006
According to a report by Dainik Bhaskar, after the year 2006 in Bihar, the rules regarding the pension of politicians have been amended 13 times i.e. it has increased 13 times in just 16 years. These include leaders who are serving sentences in cases like murder, rape and scams, but they are getting full pension.
Eight leaders including Lalu are serving the sentence
There are eight leaders who are serving their sentence and are getting a hefty pension. Among them, Jagdish Sharma is taking maximum pension of 1.25 lakhs. Apart from this, former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is getting 89 thousand, Munna Shukla 62 thousand, Rajan Tiwari 47 thousand, Prabhunath Singh 43 thousand, Anand Mohan 33 thousand and Suraj Bhan 31 thousand.
Amendment done three times in 2013
In Bihar, an MLA gets a pension of Rs 35,000 per month. Every year it increases by 3000. Talking about the amendment in the pension system, it happened thrice in the year 2013. At the same time, it increased twice in the year 2006, 2014 and 2022.
how much does it cost
According to a report in October last year, the Bihar government spends Rs 4 crore, 94 lakh, 44 thousand rupees every month to give pension to 991 former MLAs. This information was revealed under the Right to Information Act (RTI).