MP's Performance.

Ferozepur MP gets Rs 45.57 lakh as TA/DA
No question by Ludhiana MP in five years
Sushil Goyal
Tribune News Service

Sangrur, April 15
Lok Sabha (LS) MP from Ferozepur Zora Singh Mann has topped the list of 13 LS MPs from Punjab with the claims of Rs 45,57,847 as TA/DA during 2004-09 in the 14th Lok Sabha while MP from Tarn Taran Rattan Singh Ajnala’s name figures at the bottom with Rs 9,97,556 received as TA/DA during the same period.

The fact has been revealed after People for Transparency, an NGO, collected information on the MPs from the Lok Sabha Secretariat under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

MP from Ropar Sukhdev Singh Libra attended the LS for a maximum number of days (300 days) whereas MP from Faridkot Sukhbir Badal attended the House only for 80 days.

Regarding questions asked in the House, MP from Hoshiarpur Avinash Rai Khanna’s name figures on the top of the chart with 290 questions while MP from Ludhiana Sharanjit Singh Dhillon did not ask even a single question in the LS during his tenure as MP.

With regard to participation in debates in the House, MP from Hoshiarpur Avinash Rai Khanna attended 116 debates while MP from Gurdaspur Vinod Khanna and MP from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu participated in debates only four times each during their tenure of five years.

Talking to The Tribune here today, general secretary of the NGO Kamal Anand said according to the information gathered by the NGO, all 13 LS MPs from Punjab had got a handsome amount of more than Rs 4.63 crore as salary/allowamces and TA/DA during their five year tenure (2004-09). The MPs got more than Rs 2.99 crore as TA/DA and more than Rs 1.63 crore as salary/allowances. Anand said the collection of this information and compilation was a joint effort of the Punjab Election Watch, comprising People for Transparency (Sangrur), Resurgence India (Ludhiana) and Burning Brain Society (Chandigarh).