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Tripura changes rule on allowances for ex-MLAs after BJP lawmaker joins TMC
The BJP’s Tripura government’s decision to change the pension rules for ex-MLAs comes hours after the assembly speaker issued notice under the anti-defection law to legislator Ashish Das who joined TMC n October 31
AGARTALA: Tripura’s Biplab Kumar Deb government on Tuesday decided to scrap its 2019 decision that entitles the state’s lawmakers to pensionary benefits if they serve as a legislator for even a day. Former legislators will be entitled to benefits and allowances only if they have completed a five-year term, the state government announced after a cabinet meeting.
The decision reverses a 2019 amendment to the rules that ended the requirement for ex-legislators to serve as a lawmaker for at least four years to entitle them to a monthly pension - the amendment also hiked it from ₹17,250 to ₹34,500 - besides medical cover for their families. After the 2019 amendment came into force, ex-legislators were entitled to the pension and medical cover if they served as MLA for just a day.
Tuesday’s decision requiring MLAs to serve a full term means first-time legislators who quit their seats to cross sides, or are disqualified, will not get the pensionary benefit.
“This is a positive move of the state government taken during the cabinet meeting today. We believe that the accountability and integrity towards the government among the legislators will improve with the decision,” cabinet spokesperson and information and cultural affairs minister Sushanta Chowdhury told the reporters at the civil secretariat on Tuesday evening.
Chowdhury added that it would be applicable to all those who became legislators in 2018.
The decision comes days after Ashish Das, who was elected on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket from Surma constituency in Dhalai district in the 2018 state elections, crossed over to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress. Das formally made the switch at a public meeting addressed by TMC general secretary Abhijit Banerjee on October 31. But he had made his intention clear during his visit to Kolkata last month when he tonsured his head, took a dip in the Ganga and called it “an act of penance” before joining West Bengal’s ruling party.
Just a few hours before the cabinet signed off on the change in the rules, assembly speaker Ratan Chakraborty sent out a notice to Ashish Das under the anti-defection law.
Chowdhury did not give a direct response when asked if Ashish Das’s exit was the provocation for the change in rules. He reiterated that it will be applicable for current members too.
Chowdhury also linked TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee’s public meeting in the West district on October 31 to an increase in the Covid-19 positivity rate in Tripura’s West and North district, saying many people from different states including neighbouring Assam entered the state through Churaibari in North district.
Over the past three days, he said, the positivity rate in the West district has risen from 0.40% to 0.72%, and from 0.21% to 1.04% in the North district.
“The state has controlled Covid-19 graph through vaccines and also mandated RT-PCR tests at all the entry points for the outsiders. But the political party concerned tried to malign the government by politicising our implementation of the Covid-19 guidelines. We condemn this,” Chowdhury said.
Only 500 people were allowed to attend Banerjee’s first public rally on Sunday as per Tripura high court order following a TMC petition after state police told the party to shift their venue to Swami Vivekananda Maidan.
The state also mandated all the passengers coming from states with 5% or above positivity rate to produce negative RT-PCR reports irrespective of their Covid-19 vaccination status.
