Cooking Gas Subsidy

                                                          Cooking Gas Subsidy

The prime minister has been appealing on radio, television and through newspaper adds to those who can afford the normal price of cooking gas to give up the gas subsidy so that the same can be given to the needy poor. An excellent idea, that is worth considering and implementing by every Indian citizen. But it raises certain broader issue of subsidy and of giving free things to persons. Of course economic criteria are the best and poor must be given the benefit so that they can raise their standards and also the elimination of TB and respiratory diseases most common and prevalent in economically weaker section of the society due to smoke from cooking.

But are the members of parliament or the persons of press or visitors to the parliament can be classified as economically weaker section? By no means at all and they can be considered only as a privileged class enjoying big bungalows, servant quarters, free telephone , electricity , water and free travel. The list of subsidized things which they are enjoying is endless not to mention the pension which they get and to top it all there is minimum required service of 20 years for them as in the case of other public servants. They can raise their pay , pension or other allowances in the parliament itself without any check or balances whereas it take any other person years to get their legitimate dues and sometimes not even after the intervention of the Supreme Court. The most talked about is the case of One Rank One Pension case concerning defence personnel which was decided by the Supreme Court in 2008 but the implementation is still lingering on. In parliament canteen MP’s and other visitors or press can get food almost free or at a highly subsidized rate of up to 400% and are not even ashamed to keep enjoying them. They justify it by saying that they work very hard ad a parliamentarian. Well I fully agree with them on this issue but they work very hard to sit outside in a dharna, not allow the parliament to function or keep shouting on top of their voices, break chairs and mikes and whatever they can lay their hands on and they do definitely need highly subsidized food to keep and maintain their energy level. What a shame? It would have been much better if the prime minister had also asked the members of parliament and state assemblies to give up their subsidy on canteen and other items and at least cut down on their perks also. The visitors to the parliament have no right to get subsidized food as they can well afford to pay the price of it and should be asked to do so and not to pamper them by offering subsidized food as bribe. It would be proper if this food is supplied to all on no cost no profit basis but unfortunately it is restricted to only the persons who work there or have passes to go there. Why cannot these well off persons give up subsidy on their own in order to set example for others and change the format of the canteen to be run as on no profit no loss basis rather than being a highly subsidized one.

Big corporations are providing subsidized food to their employees in their canteen but the food is not subsidized by public money and that too not so highly subsidized up to 400%. It is subsidized out of the profit which these companies earn because of the production or work carried out by their employees and is in a way an incentive for them to perform better. But sadly this is not the case in the parliament where the tax money is used to subsidize the food. The money which they have collection by taxing the ordinary person and about their productivity the less talked about it is better.  The recent Lok Sabha session is a shame on the performance of the parliament where no fruitful work has been carried out with a huge loss to exchequer because of the dharnas and protests. Sadly, there is policy on no work no pay for these persons or the removal from their posts if they are absent or refuse to work or allow the parliament to function. Will the government consider such a policy in line with other conditions of work for public servants and force these to do some productive work for the benefit of the country and its citizens and remove all these subsidies for the privileged class as a whole?