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    These guys are really working hard.

    Foreign bonanza in offing for MLAs
    Shubhadeep Choudhury
    Tribune News Service

    Chandigarh, January 7
    If the legislators of Haryana were disheartened by the state government’s reluctance to increase their pay and allowances in the last assembly session, they will be soon having something to rejoice about.

    Foreign trips, a cherished dream of upwardly mobile Indians, are being arranged for the lawmakers of Haryana. Ministers go abroad but not many MLAs get a chance to do so. “We want MLAs also to visit foreign countries because the exposure will be useful for their intellectual development”, said the Haryana Assembly Speaker, Mr Satbir Singh Kadian.

    Mr Kadian said that it had been decided to use the forum of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to send the MLAs of Haryana to foreign destinations. A proposal regarding arranging foreign trips for MLAs, irrespective of party affiliation, was passed at the last meeting of the state unit of the CPA held in Chandigarh last month, Mr Kadian, who is also the ex-officio chairperson of the unit, said.

    Interestingly, CPA membership forms are distributed among the MLAs every year and the annual membership fee is only Rs 100. However, not many MLAs are eager to become members of the CPA and till date the number of members in the Haryana unit of the CPA is less than 50 per cent of the total strength of the Assembly. It remains to be seen how those legislators, who are yet to become members of the CPA, respond once the plan of sending MLAs on foreign trips is formally announced.

    According to Mr Kadian, members of the current Uttar Pradesh Assembly have visited foreign countries by using the forum of the CPA. The Haryana Speaker said that he met the Speaker of the UP Assembly in Lucknow in November to find out the modalities for the trips. “Groups of 10 or 11 MLAs will go abroad. They will go around and have a look at the vital sectors of these countries and come back after about a fortnight”, Mr Kadian said. The first such trip would take place soon, Mr Kadian said, adding that it depended upon when the money needed for the passage of the MLAs could be arranged.

    The expenses, according to the Speaker, were to be met by asking private individuals (industrialists, etc) as well as state government-run corporations to make donations for this purpose. Though Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc, are also members of the Commonwealth, the Haryana legislators will go to countries such as Britain, Australia and the like. They might also go to countries which were not part of the Commonwealth, stated the Speaker.

    The Speaker had himself earlier visited foreign countries, including Britain, Australia and Canada, in connection with CPA conferences. On one of the trips, Mr Padam Singh Dahiya, MLA, accompanied him as an observer while during another trip, Mr Sita Ram, MLA from Dabwali, went with the Speaker. Mr Gopi Chand Gehlot, Deputy Speaker, visited Brazil and the UK for attending CPA workshops.

    Many of the ministers of the present regime went to foreign countries on “official work”, which triggered off protests by the Opposition. The ministers are, however, not covered under this plan of sending the legislators abroad by using the CPA. Will the Opposition object to this move as well ?

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    Hight of mental slavery and complex...

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