You are paying for our netas' meals : Ashok Kumar Upadhyay

India Today: New Delhi: Saturday, June 23, 2018.

Forget about Indira Canteen, Anna Canteen, Ekushe Annapurna, Deendayal Canteen or the other government-sponsored joints that serve cheap food.

Right in the heart of Lutyens' Delhi is a canteen that serves food at enviable prices. Chicken curry for Rs 50, plain dosa for Rs 12, a vegetable thali for Rs 35, a three-course lunch for Rs 106...we are talking about the Parliament Canteen.

The Parliament Canteen is not open to the aam aadmi but only to present and former Members of Parliament, officers and staff of Parliament, and visitors holding valid passes.

But the issue is not cheap food for our parliamentarians. A bigger question is did our lawmakers lie to the public?

In 2015, there was a lot of hue and cry after it came to light that the Parliament Canteens was being subsidised to the extent of 80% of its cost.

The then BJD Lok Sabha MP Baijayant 'Jay' Panda wrote a letter to the Speaker and argued that in light of the government urging voluntary surrender of cooking gas (LPG) subsidies, by those who could afford it, MPs giving up their subsidised canteen privileges would also be "a right step in effecting greater public trust" in lawmakers.

The Lok Sabha reacted positively and its secretariat on December 31, 2015, issued a statement: "After receiving the committee's report, the Speaker has taken a number of decisions, out of which the most important is that the canteen in Parliament will now work on 'no-profit, no-loss' basis...Accordingly, the rates of various food items have been increased and these would be sold at the actual cost of making...This will be effective from tomorrow."

So effective January 1, 2016 subsidy was abolished and the rate of food increased in Parliament Canteen.

However, a query by India Today TV under the Right to Information (RTI) Act found it otherwise. Food at the Parliament Canteen is still being subsidised.

In the financial year, 2013-14 the total subsidy incurred on Parliament Canteen was Rs 14.09 crore. In 2014-15 it was to the tune of Rs 15.85. And in 2015-16 the year when the subsidy was abolished and while nine months were under subsidy the canteens had reportedly functioned for three months without any subsidy, the total subsidy bill was still Rs 15.97 crore.

In next financial year (2016-17), when there was supposed to be no subsidy at all the financial records still show a subsidy of Rs 15.40 crore; down by only Rs. 57 lakh from the previous year when by all accounts it should have been zero.

So despite the Lok Sabha secretariat's claim that subsidy had been abolished, the RTI reply to India Today TV clearly shows that the hapless taxpaying people of India are still paying for the cheap food that is the privilege of those in Parliament every day.