What is the biggest advantage of working in the public sector vis-a-vis the corporate sector? It is the lollies you get in the form of medical and travel bill reimbursements over and above your the salary. And if you are lucky enough to be an MLA or an MP then you are assured of receiving reimbursements to the tune of crores without any disclosures being made in the public domain. This has come to light through an RTI query filed by RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal.

In its response to Agrawal’s petition, the Delhi legislative assembly has revealed that over and above the hefty salary packages and daily allowances paid to the MLAs of the fourth legislative assembly, their medical and travel reimbursements up to October 2013 seem to be going through the roof. Beginning from Rs 8,182 claimed by the Congress MLA from Chandni Chowk, Prahlad Singh Sawhney, the medical reimbursements have gone up to Rs 1,31,93,055 for Vipin Sharma – another MLA of the party from Rohtas constituency.

The total amount reimbursed for medical bills of 43 MLAs by the Delhi government is Rs 2,62,21,223, it was revealed in response to the RTI plea.
In case of travel allowances, the bills range from Rs 17,682 (for Congress’s Rajouri Garden MLA Dayanand Chandila) to Rs 3,87,417 spent by Shyam Lal Garg, the BJP MLA from Shakur Basti.

According to the RTI reply, travel bills reimbursed for 54 MLAs adds up to Rs 79,38,375.

Expressing his displeasure against such kinds of reimbursement being given to MLAs, Agrawal said legislators should only get treated at government hospitals, which provide free treatment, instead of unscrupulously spending taxpayers’ money in getting high-cost treatment in private hospitals and foreign medical institutions. “The question is how and why medical or travel allowances are being given to members of the Delhi legislative assembly?” he remarked. “All MLAs should take mediclaim policies from their normal big package of salary and daily allowances. Otherwise they should get themselves treated at government-hospitals, which provide free medical facilities.

“MLAs have no right to get foreign or other private treatment at public cost, which the government cannot provide to general public.”

Questioning the need for MLAs incurring such huge travel expenditure when their area of operation is limited to Delhi, Agrawal has accused MLAs of duping the public and using public money to sponsor their personal trips. “It is not clear why travel allowances to the tune of lakhs of rupees are given to each MLA while their field of operation is limited only to Delhi. It may be that such travel allowances might have been paid for luxury trips enjoyed by them in the name of study trips.”

In order to bring in transparency and accountability in the reimbursements claimed by MLAs, Agrawal has sought that detailed disclosures of such expenses be put out on the legislative assembly’s website. “Relevant details of trips and travel allowances of MLAs should be put on the website in accordance with circular from department of personnel and training (DoPT) issued according to observations contained in a verdict of the central information commission (CIC). Making such details public can act as a deterrent check on misuse of public funds claimed in name of tours and travels,” he added.