Information received via Rakesh Chaturvedi
The only place in India where food is cheap.
Tea- 1.00
Soup-5.50
Daal-1.50
Meals-2.00
Chapati-1.00
Chicken-24.50
Dosa-4.00
Biryani-8.00
Fish-13.00
Rakesh Chaturvedi suggested that instead of the Food Security Bill, let the Government give food to the poor at the Parliament canteen rates.
Good idea. That may allay the corporate media’s fears that the Food Security Bill may further strain India’s weakening economy.
Taking off from this interesting price list, some idle research on this rainy Sunday morning yielded the following information: There has been a noticeable shift in the age profile of MPs in Lok Sabha. The percentage of older MPs has increased significantly. In 1952, only 20% of MPs were 56 years or older. In 2009, this figure had increased to 43%. In the 1st Lok Sabha, there was no MP over the age of 70. This number has risen to 7% in the current Lok Sabha. The number of MPs below 40 has decreased from 26% in 1952 to 14% in the current Lok Sabha.
As for salary – the salary of an MP is Rs 50,000, tax-free, plus a Daily Allowance of Rs. 2,000/- per day when the MP attends parliament sessions.
Comparing their salary with what they have to pay for food in the Parliament canteen could explain some puzzling calculations by MPs and Planning Commission folk:
Full meal at Rs 12 , said Raj Babbar once, doubtless in his trademark understated style of dialogue delivery.
And the Tendulkar Committee in 2009 decreed that an income of 560 rupees per month in urban India and 368 rupees per month in rural India is enough to purchase 2,100 calories and 2,400 calories of nutrition respectively. Aarti Sethi did some calculations of her own in Let Them Eat Gobi, and came to the conclusion that “unless the Planning Commission is planning to distribute compressed meals in the form of pills, such as those that astronauts eat in spaceships, to the urban poor, I am unsure of how they think 560 rupees can buy anyone anything.”
Put this alongside the fact that Indian bureaucrats of the select services (IAS and IPS) have recently been allowed to get free medical treatment abroad at our expense, which Harsh Taneja brought to our notice.
Suddenly, the calculations of the poverty line, daily nutritional allowance and how much it costs to buy it, and the general sense of All Izz Well with the poor, all starts to make perfect sense.
As the Americans say – you do the math!
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Old age asylum ?? please do not degrade our old citizens .. the one in photo is a mental asylum filled with criminals !
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Reblogged this on Five Senses … and commented:
So very apt!
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I fully agree with you,we must start it as a movement. Any government will not take a concrete step.
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Excellent! I like it !!
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MPs, Ministers, Public Officials are all doing important work. They should be well-paid, well taken care of, treated with the respect due to those who are shaping the country. But, they should not be permitted to fraud… with tax-free incomes and non-taxed perks like housing, etc… Give them luxury, but let them pay their taxes like everyone else. Let their compensation be calculated like everyone else. Give them good restaurants inside parliament but let them pay for what they eat.
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Ah Harshan.. So refreshing to hear a sane voice. I am constantly appalled by how people grovel around people in positions of power but speak so disparagingly about them in all other circles of life. I totally agree that all public sector employees including MPS should be paid well like their counterparts in private sector. But abuse of their power should not be tolerated.
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they must pay tax!!!
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so mean, ms. menon…and here i was really expecting an article on a proper old age home, and i already before reading i had thought of who i’d want to forward this article to.
mean mean mean :) :) :)
take care :)
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though i have to say giving food to the poor at parliament rates not a bad idea, though i do think it may turn out rather expensive at those rates too, especially the chicken…now if those rates were brought down too, that suggestion might actually be quite nice. so many people live on vada pav in mumbai, which also has become more expensive as the years have gone by.
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The most grievous fact is that the salary of an MP is Rs 50,000, tax-free, plus a Daily Allowance of Rs. 2,000/- per day when the MP attends parliament sessions. + transportation or else including those who are just attending and sleeping on the Chair for five years. This is a recent increase but the debt for this payment is born by me and my neighbours, when we are having no provision for getting 5000 naya paise a year. Besides, this is an action to weak the democracy that with five years service, the burden of a nation. Besides, this is the main weak point for the increased life-expenditure as well as the progress and expansion of the difference between haves and havenots.
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More useful than these rather juvenile ramblings would be a mention of Jayalalithaa’s Amma canteens, which have actually been delivering food at these rates (and cheaper), at decent quality, to the poor. The AIADMK were sceptical of the Food Security Bill (which Kafila has cheerled, despite all evidence to the contrary) because they knew that innovative and efficient State governments are capable of doing better.
Too much to expect Kafila to pay attention to the world outside Delhi..
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From Punit Agarwal:
Our MPs are asking us to give up our LPG subsidy. But they’re refusing to give up their Parliament canteen subsidy.
The Parliament Food Committee has refused to revise the rates of the canteen. They say the subsidy is mostly used by Parliament staff.
When Parliament is in session 250 MPs use the canteen. I want to show the committee that over one lakh fifty thousand people want these MPs to give up their canteen subsidy. Sign my petition.
I will take this petition and all our signatures to the Members of the Parliament Food Committee. If I can show them huge public support, they will have to give up their canteen subsidy.
Parliament canteen rates have not been revised since 2010. Since then, fuel rates have increased, the prices of vegetables have gone up and the burden always falls on common citizens.
We are taxpayers, we pay for our own food and fuel, why should we pay for MPs’ food as well? Let us show our MPs that we are watching how they spend our money.
Sign my petition and ask MPs to give up their canteen subsidy.
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