Parliamentary secretaries: Have no work, no office!
Most of these legislators are yet to get staff, complain that they are not even invited for meetings.
Bengaluru: The posts of parliamentary secretaries created by the state government to appease disgruntled legislators who were denied Cabinet berths, seem to have become white elephants.
With absolutely no work except making an appearence with the ministers they are attached with at meetings, they are blaming themselves for accepting the post. "As legislators, we were members of several committees and were getting Rs 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh as allowance monthly. Now, that is also gone", a parliamentary secretary told Deccan Chronicle.
In November last year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah created history of sorts by appointing 11 legislators as parliamentary secretaries and attached them to various ministers to assist the government in speedy implementation of programmes.
The post of parliamentary secretary is equal to that of minister state, they are entitled to a car, office and five to six staff members. For this, the government passed an ordinance withdrawing all perks of these legislators.
After ten months, the state of the parliamentary secretaries seems dismal. An MLC, Mr Govindaraju who is close to the CM, was the luckiest as he got a chamber in Vidhana Soudha, while others are scrambling for offices.
"There is no vacant room in Vidhana Soudha or Vikasa Soudha. I think the government has to build another Soudha in view of the rising demand", noted an officer. Mr C.S. Shivalli, MLA from Kundagol in Dharwad, got space in MS Building just three days ago. "All these days, I was working without an office. In ten months, I have attended 3-4 meetings with my minister".
Another parliamentary secretary, Mr Raju Alagur said though he was attached to Housing Department ten months ago, he has not been invited for any meeting. Mr S.R. Doddamani, a parliamentary secretary attached to Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil, said he had been given an office at Anand Rao Circle but has not received any communication to attend meetings.
"So far, no department file has come to me. I feel it is a training programme for me to understand the functioning of the department!" Mr H.P. Manjunath, parliamentary secretary with tourism ministry is yet to get an office.