Vijay Deo Jha
Ranchi, March 13: The tradition of expensive gifts to MLAs seems to have returned in Jharkhand once again as the school education department of the Jharkhand government has gifted bicycles to MLAs during the budget session.
There are 82 MLAs in the Jharkhand assembly. Reliable sources said that an additional number of bicycles were purchased for distribution among officials of concerned departments and secretaries. The minimum price of the bicycle is estimated not less than Rs 7000 and reliable sources said that it must have incurred a minimum expenditure of Rs seven lakh.
Bicycles were gifted the day the minister of the school education department Jagarnath Mahto laid before the House report of his department.
On the other hand, the finance department gifted trolley bags and the agriculture department gifted milk products, juice, and aromatic rice to MLAs. The department of women and child development gave sling bags.
The MLAs have been getting expensive gifts during the budget session. “But this tradition of the expensive gift was stopped in 2010 considering it a wasteful expenditure. Otherwise, mobile phones and watches and other costly items were gifted to MLAs,” sources in the assembly said.
Normally when the report of any department is laid before the House the concerned department provides documents to MLAs. “A bag of any type, sling bag or handheld bag is sufficient to keep those documents. There is no logic behind gifting bicycles and similar other expensive items to MLAs. The government should instead provide bicycles to such children who are forced to walk to school. I think on previous occasions phones were given to MLAs,” said CPI (ML) MLA Binod Singh who is known for refusing such gifts.
Binod Singh claimed that the Hemant Soren government has curtailed such wasteful expenditure by 75 percent in the name of gifts to MLAs.
The assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto had told the media that it would encourage MLAs for cycling and they will remain physically fit. However, MLAs of Jharkhand riding bicycles have always been a photo opportunity for them. Some MLAs packed the bicycle in their car and transported it back home. Some of them said that they would give it to any needy person.
During the previous government headed by BJP’s Raghubar Das, the then health minister had gifted weighing machines and blood pressure measurement machines to MLAs.
