Jagdeep Dhankhar calls for national policy on freebies

Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar calls for national policy on freebies so that government investments in any form are used in a structured manner for the larger good. During the Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, he also highlighted the need to bring uniformity in the salaries and pensions of the lawmakers of the different states. His comments came as Samajwadi Party lawmaker Ramgopal Yadav sought an increase in Members of Parliament Local Area Development funds from Rs5 crore to Rs20 crore. Dhankhar  said, the electoral process has become electoral inducements in the country, and it puts the new government formed after the election in an uncomfortable situation. He stressed bringing a national policy so that all investments of the government are utilized in the larger interest in a structured manner.

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I will be open to a structured discussion after consulting Leader of the House and Leader of Opposition because the country grows only when capex is available, says @VPIndia in #Rajyasabha

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Yadav said the funds are inadequate to carry out projects given the inflation and GST imposed on the spending. “One-third of the Lok Sabha MPs [members of Parliament] lose elections because of MPLAD... in several states including Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, the funds allocated to MLAs [members of legislative assembly] for spending are more than the MPLAD,” he said.Dhankhar added that there is a need to revisit the structure of subsidies as well. “Subsidies, if required in areas like the farm sector, should be direct, and that is the practise in developed countries. I checked with the US mechanism. The US has 1/5th of farm households as our country but the average income of US farm household is more than the general income of US household, and that is because the subsidy to the farmer is direct, transparent, without intermediary.”
Dhankhar also said that , Executive is accountable to legislature & to the electorate in elections. Therefore, governance issues must be confined only to executive governance, be state government or central government.