BJP Member of Parliament Varun Gandhi may move a Bill in Lok Sabha in the coming Monsoon Session seeking an end to post-retirement benefits to the MPs and MLAs.
The party MP, who has become a vocal critic of the Centre’s Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the Army and declared that he himself would not take pension, will be writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to take steps to end pension benefits to the public representatives, sources close to him said.
The MP would be moving a private member Bill to withdraw pension benefits to MPs and MLAs. He would also move a Bill to make recruitment in the Government jobs "time-bound", sources said.
According to an estimate, the Center is spending over Rs 70.50 crore on monthly pensions being paid to former MPs, which also include rich film stars, businessmen and industrialists having declared their wealth in their election affidavits running into crores.
Varun has argued that if those recruited in the armed forces under the Agnipath initiative are not eligible for a pension, then why public representatives "after a five-year term" should get post-retirement benefits.
On Sunday Varun tweeted that two youths, Sachin in Rohtak and Vikas in Fatehpur, who were preparing for years to join the Army, had committed suicide after the Government announced the Agnipath scheme.
