Telegraph
India: New Delhi: Tuesday, September 03, 2019.
An
RTI query seeking details on allowances and pensions to former MPs who are
chief ministers has resulted in a strange reply. The information, the Lok Sabha
secretariat has informed, was "personal", so details would not be
shared.
According
to the Finance Bill of 2018, former MPs are entitled to a pension of Rs 25,000
every month, if they complete their five-year term. The MPs are entitled to an
additional Rs 2,000 for every year served as an MP over the five-year period.
Under
the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954, an MP
loses his entitlement to pension and perks in case he is appointed the
President, Vice-President, or is re-elected to either House or gets employed in
the central or state government.
The
RTI query was filed by Madhya Pradesh-based activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur. The
Lok Sabha Secretariat’s First Appellate Authority cited Section 8 (1) (j) of
the RTI Act, which authorises the information holding authority to refuse
information if it deems it personal.
The
section says that “information which relates to personal information, the
disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or
which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual"
may not be shared "unless the Central Public Information Officer or the
State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may
be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the
disclosure". It also adds that this is "provided that the information,
which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be
denied to any person”.
The
salaries and pensions of parliamentarians are decided by the Parliament through
open deliberation and thus, constitute information which can be placed before Parliament
if a member asks for it from the authority.
The
RTI query had sought the information of pensions and allowances given to
Amrinder Singh, Mehbooba Mufti, Yogi Adityanath, Mamata Banerjee, Sarbananda
Sonowal, Nitish Kumar, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Vasundhara Raje, Manohar
Parrikar, Kamal Nath, V. Narayanasamy, Ashok Gehlot, and Sachin Pilot (current
Rajasthan deputy chief minister), between 2013 and 2018 December.
All
of them have been MPs and went on to become chief ministers, except Pilot.