Food subsidy for MPs to stop

The Members of Parliament will not be availing any subsidy that is offered to them on food at the canteen inside the Indian Parliament.

This was a decision taken unanimously by the lawmakers yesterday after a suggestion made by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Giving up of subsidy will help save around 17 crore rupees each year as per reports. The decision is to come into effect from the next session.

The canteen offers food at a very low price to the Members of Parliament, visitors, staff members etc.

A plate of vegetarian ‘thali‘ costs ₹30, while non-veg ‘thali‘ costs ₹60 in the Parliament canteen.

Other items are also priced very low such as bread and butter is for ₹6, coffee ₹5, dosa plain ₹12, rice (boiled) ₹7 and soup is for ₹14.

The canteens are run by the Northern Railway and earlier this year, it had demanded Rs 16.43 crores from the Lok Sabha Secretariat to run them. The huge amount was needed to make up for the subsidy given.

The decision of the lawmakers got a huge response on the social media

Major Gaurav Arya (Retd) tweeted, “I congratulate all MPs, across party lines, for taking this step. Next step, please get together to ensure that MPs and MLAs get pension only if they serve for a minimum period of 20 years…and not before.”

“It means that we are so poor now that the food subsidy is being withdrawn from Parliament. The cost of studying for university students is increasing. However, poor MPs should be subsidized. Otherwise, the parliamentarians will forget to talk about people,” tweeted Subhajit Karmakar.