Ex-Parl secys asked to refund pay, allowances

SHILLONG: The state government is shying away from replying to the RTI seeking information about the salary and allowances of parliamentary secretaries before the High Court nullified the posts, activist Madal Sumer has said.
In a statement to the media issued on Sunday, Sumer, who had filed a PIL questioning the appointments of parliamentary secretaries in Meghalaya, said, “The RTI was filed on September 20. In the application, I had asked for the monthly salary, perks, TA/DA and other allowances which a parliamentary secretary had withdrawn from the government’s account.”
The RTI activist from Jowai said the chief secretary’s office had forwarded the application, which has 10 questions, to relevant departments.
“However, the government has chosen to reply only to questions 1 and 2 which are about number of parliamentary secretaries and their names. The chief minister’s office is quiet on the matter related to the expenditure incurred by them,” he added.
The High Court on November 9 declared the Meghalaya Parliamentary Secretaries (Appointment, Salary, Allowances and Miscellaneous) Act, 2005, illegal and unconstitutional.
Sumer demanded that the government should come clean on the amount paid to the parliamentary secretaries.
“This is grossly a misappropriation of public money which the government in any case should recover from all parliamentary secretaries,” he said.
According to Sumer, if the MLAs do not refund the amount that they had received as parliamentary secretaries during their tenure, it would amount to misappropriation of public money and they cannot contest the 2018 elections.