Shimla, September 04: Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has introduced an amendment bill in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly that aims to cancel the pension of six disqualified former MLAs. This significant legislative move targets members who were found to have violated party rules and subsequently lost their posts, while addressing the financial implications of their disqualification.
The bill, which is to be discussed in the Assembly, if passed, will stop the pension of former Gagret MLA Chaitanya Sharma and former Kutlehar MLA Davinder Kumar Bhutto. These two former MLAs along with four others were disqualified after they were found guilty of violating the party whip while passing the finance bill in the budget session of the Assembly.
The amendment also proposes to stop pensions of four other former MLAs for one term: Sudhir Sharma (currently BJP MLA) from Dharamshala, Inderdutt Lakhanpal (currently BJP MLA) from Barsar, Rajinder Rana from Sujanpur and Ravi Thakur from Lahaul-Spiti. If the bill is passed, these members will lose their pension eligibility for the respective term.
Apart from stopping pension payments in future, the bill includes a provision for recovery of pensions and allowances received by disqualified members during the 14th Assembly as per Schedule-10 of the Constitution. This recovery clause could put a financial burden on the disqualified MLAs, requiring them to repay the benefits received during their disqualified tenure.
The disqualification of these six MLAs came during a crucial moment of the budget session of the assembly when they were absent during voting on the finance bill, violating the party whip. Following this, the Speaker, acting on a proposal by the parliamentary affairs minister, disqualified the six members. Initially elected on Congress tickets, these MLAs later contested by-elections as BJP candidates, in which only Sudhir Sharma and Inderdutt Lakhanpal won.
An MLA who completes one term in Himachal Pradesh gets a pension of around Rs 93,000. An additional Rs 5,000 is added to this pension for each additional term. For example, an MLA who completes six terms will get a pension of around Rs 1,23,000. The ruling party currently has the support of 40 MLAs, so the bill is expected to face little resistance in the assembly.
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