Rs 60.70 crore subsidy to spice up parliamentarian's meals

New Delhi: A subsidy of Rs 60.70 crore was spent to spice up the culinary delight of members of Parliament in the last five years. The MPs, who draw quite a fat salary and perks, are served meals cooked on demand at abnormally cheaper rates in Parliament canteens run by the Northern Railways.

So mutton curry comes at a rate of Rs 20 and masala dosa at Rs 6 at canteens for MPs in Parliament. Even while people at large rue prices of green vegetables soaring beyond their reach, the MPs delight themselves with boiled vegetables at just Rs 6. Fish fried with chips come at just Rs 25 for the legislators of the country.

An RTI reply has revealed that the MPs are served with 76 mouth-watering variety of meals at highly-subsidised rates.

In some cases the meals are subsidised to the extent of 88 per cent of the cost, while for other subsidy varies in the range of 63 per cent to 83 per cent. Even while the cost for procuring raw items of dish like stew vegetables comes to about Rs 41.25, the MPs relish them by paying just Rs 4, with 90 per cent of the cost paid from the taxpayers’ money.

The MPs, parliamentary staff and journalists can get meals at the canteens. But barring MPs, rest are served with meals cooked the night before, which are generally cold and disliked. The MPs, however, have dedicated canteens where a posse of cooks ready the meals on demand and even take care to cook as per the  instructions of the parliamentarians.

The RTI reply shows that canteens received a subsidy of Rs 10.4 crore, Rs 11.7 crore, Rs 11.9 crore, Rs 12.5 crore and Rs 14 crore during the years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2012-13, 2013-14 respectively, which totals to around Rs 60.7 crore.