Calcutta Telegraph; Suman K. Shrivastava; Saturday , March 19 , 2011,
Ranchi, March 18: After a day of controversies, frayed tempers and high-decibel action in the House, MLAs no longer need to worry about their shooting blood pressure levels. They can just reach out for their personal blood pressure (BP) monitors.
This considerate gift of an “electronic BP machine” for all legislators is the brainwave of health minister Hemlal Murmu. “It’s a part of the tradition of the House,” he said.
He’s right, because March, the month of budgets, is also the season of gifting in the Assembly.
Murmu said there was no budgetary provision to purchase the gifts. “We procured them from contingency funds,” he said. “It is important to check the blood pressure regularly. They (MLAs) can themselves check theirs now,” Murmur told The Telegraph, tongue firmly in cheek. On March 7, the finance department, headed by Hemant Soren, gifted branded trolley bags to MLAs. It was day Soren Junior presented the annual budget. The drinking water and sanitation department, also headed by him, presented DVDs.
The labour department gifted wristwatches. Other departments gifted brief cases stuffed with budget papers and copies comprising their achievements.
But most gifts have a snazzy quotient. In 2008, the then finance minister Stephen Marandi had given high-end cell phones to all MLAs in the state.
Gifting also follows a protocol. The department sends the gifts to the Assembly secretariat, which deputes an official to hand them over to MLAs or their personal assistants on the day the budget of the department concerned is to be debated upon and passed in the House.
The generosity certainly does not come cheap. In response to an RTI application, the Assembly secretariat said gifts worth Rs 8 lakh were distributed to MLAs during 2004-2006. Factor in today’s inflation to get an idea of current costs.
With no budgetary provision for purchasing expensive gifts, arranging finances is a grey area that not too many want to venture into.
“We are yet to see how to manage the funds for the 100 trolley bags,” said a finance department official not wishing to be named.
MLAs may yell their lungs out against each other in the House, but they smilingly unite for gifts.
But there are exceptions. CPI(ML) MLA Vinod Singh, who consistently refuses gifts, has dubbed it as a bribe on the floor of the House. “The state government, particularly the chief minister, should reveal the sources to meet the cost of gifts,” he said.
Incidentally, JVM legislature party leader Pradeep Yadav also refused gifts this year.
“The health minister distributed BP monitors from scam money. Similarly, the DVDs must be a part of the huge scam of the department concerned,” he said.
Significantly, other MLAs showed unease with the practice, but not unwillingness to take them.
Jamshedpur (West) Congress MLA Banna Gupta said it was wrong on the part of legislators to accept gifts. With great naivete he added: “I only received a bag to keep files.”
Maverick Bokaro MLA from JVM Samresh Singh, notorious for eyeball-grabbing protests, the most recent on March 11 when he climbed on a reporter’s table in the House to protest against water scarcity, said he had not received the gifts so far.
But he wasn’t sure of refusing any of the goodies. “Let us see what happens when I attend the House after Holi,” he politely parried. He might find the BP monitor very useful.
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