Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has ordered the heads of departments and ministers not to continue the years-long practice of providing free lunch and gifts to the legislators during the budget sessions. The legislators in turn were asked to make their own arrangements for meals or have them in the assembly pantry.
In addition to the debates and walkouts, the assembly budget session has also been famous for lunches provided by each department for MLAs, Ministers, Police Officers, the Secretariat Staff, and journalists when their demand for grants were taken up.
During the sessions, members will also get luxury gifts from the ministers and it has been the practice for more than a decade, according to several media reports.
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A Times of India report quoted an unidentified bureaucrat stating: "The assembly is the highest forum for law-making and intellectual debates and it is known for its simplicity. But these gifts and meals are lowering its dignity and decorum."
The report further said that each department had been spending at least three lakhs every day to feed more than 1000 people and the cost of lunch and gifts have gone up following the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Even though there are no budget provisions for the lunch served during the sessions, the departments provide vegetarian and nonvegetarian dishes from top restaurants to the members and the expenses were brought under different account heads, the report said.
According to the report, the members will get the gifts from the departmental staff after signing the registers.