EXCLUSIVE: MPs fly business class to burn hole in state exchequer, Left leaders top list, says RTI

An RTI (Right To Information) query has revealed that most Members of Parliament prefer to fly business or first class for official purposes at the cost of public exchequer.

MPs belonging to the Left parties have been found to spend the most.

The RTI revealed that the total expenditure of Travel Allowance (TA) and Dearness Allowance (DA) of all members of the Lok Sabha in one year from April 2016 to March 2017 is Rs 95,70,01,830 while the total expenditure of all Rajya Sabha members in a year from April 2016 to March 2017 is Rs 35,89,31,862.

Such a huge cost is incurred by the state exchequer as most MPs travel first class or business class. The members are also entitled to claim one-fourth of the air fare as their DA.

According to RTI details, most members of the Rajya Sabha have claimed about Rs 10 lakh in the form of TA/DA in one year from April 2016 to March 2017. The highest spender happens to be CPM MP from West Bengal Ritabrata Banerjee, who has claimed a whopping Rs 69,24,335, which comes to almost Rs 6 lakh a month. The MP claimed almost Rs 14 lakh as Dearness Allowance. Interestingly, the MP is under suspension from the party for his lavish lifestyle. CPI(M) had suspended Ritabrata Banerjee after he posted pictures on social media sporting a Mont Blanc and Apple Watch smart watch for three months in June this year. The party had found him guilty of deviating from the party's ideology which espouses austerity.

The second highest spender also happens to be a Communist Party leader. CPI leader D Raja claimed Rs 65,04,880 during the last financial year for his air travels for official purposes. The Left leader spent up to Rs 65,841 from a Delhi-Chennai flight and after adding one-fourth additional amount as DA, he claimed Rs 82,301 for this travel. Another West Bengal MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of the AITC claimed Rs 61,72,271. He spent up Rs 56, 136 for travelling from Kolkata to Delhi, and after adding one-fourth additional amount, he claimed Rs 70,170 for the trip.

OTHER TOP SPENDERS

The list of top spenders include veteran Congress leader Oscar Fernandes, Tiruchi Siwa of the DMK, CPI(M) MP from Kerala CP Narayanan and P Bhattacharya of the Congress. JD(U) MP from Bihar Anil Kumar Sahani is tenth on the list of top Rajya Sabha spenders. The MP is an accused in the LTC scam. The CBI had alleged that the MP, in collusion with other people, used forged e-tickets and fake boarding passes and claimed to the tune of Rs 23.71 lakh as travel and dearness allowance reimbursements without undertaking the actual journey. Sahani had been claiming that he had fallen victim to a racket.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat has provided air travel details of individual MPs for the period between July 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016 only under RTI. Most of the members in the Lok Sabha spent about Rs 2 lakh to Rs 7 lakh on air travel in six months. At the same time, some members have spent more than Rs 57 lakh in 6 months, which is about Rs 10 lakh per month. The top two spenders happen to be from the Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK. Party MP Dr K Gopal has claimed Rs 57,54,307 as air fare and DA for this period while his colleague P Kumar has claimed Rs 44,29,901.

BJP MP from Andaman and Nicobar Islands Bishnu Pada Ray, who has claimed Rs 41,06,684 is third on the list of top spenders, which includes CPI(M) MPs from Kerala Dr Anirudhan Sampath and PK Sreemathy as well. Another Kerala MP KC Venugopal of the INC and BJP MP Hari Manjhi from Bihar also figure among the top ten. Speaking to India Today, RTI activist advocate Dinesh Chadha, "As per the Salary Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act 1954 , the members are entitled for air fare and an additional amount equal to one-fourth of the air fare as DA. Nowhere it is mentioned that members are entitled for fare of business class or any other special class. It seems from the aforementioned expenses that Members of Parliament have themselves assumed the meaning of air travel as a business class or other special classes".

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