Large number of parliamentarians owe huge money to NDMC & MTNL
24 Dec, 2012Reply to the application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that parliamentarians owe the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) huge amount of money. The reply also shows that despite pendency of recovery worth crores of rupees, no action has been initiated though they have preferred to repeatedly ignore the reminders sent by these agencies. The MTNL has also confirmed that a directive has been issued for not disconnecting telephone lines of parliamentarians despite default in payment. The reply has shown that as on December 7, 2012 the total outstanding amount of the NDMC and MTNL against the Members of Parliament stood at Rs. 6.32 crore. The list of defaulters includes the following names:
- Former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda of Janata Dal (Secular),
- Union Minister Shashi Tharoor,
- Former treasurer of Conress Moti Lal Vora,
- Former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler
- Deepender Singh Hooda,
- Raj Babbar,
- Former BJP president Rajnath Singh,
- Ram Vilas Paswan of Lok Janshakti Party.
RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal, who had filed the application, compared the treatment given to the parliamentarians as that befitting the “modern day’s king and queen”. He further demanded that demanded that a policy of auto deducting all government bills from the salaries and pensions of present and former parliamentarians should be implemented. He has suggested that a no dues certificate should be compulsory requirement for filing nomination for any election.