LAWMAKERS demand in Parliament on Thursday for allocation of Tk 100 crore in the new budget for 2016-17 that should be exclusively placed under their jurisdiction for use in local development seems not to have been based on proper ground. They have also demanded Eid bonus raising question whether MPs have not any other serious policy issue that they can take for debate on the floor. It appears that they are a bunch of people picked up by the government to keep it in power and they always demand such budgetary funds in the name of rural development. But in spending the money they are not accountable to local people and to any other authority. It is taxpayers’ money, which comes so easily and also spent easily by dishonest people dominated by unbridled corruption and irregularity at all levels. The government routinely allocates such fund from annual budget to MPs and they use it on political activities under name-sake local projects. Recent media reports said all but seven percent of Dhaka Zila Parishad projects were fake and not traceable in recent past. But MPs demand this time for Eid bonus has added new dimension to their lust for money. MPs are not government servants, they are public leaders but claiming bonus showing the example of government servants is not fair. In our view MPs are rich people and going by the footsteps of government servants will only put them on wrong footing. The country is having Tk 3.4 trillion budgets for fiscal 2016-17 with over Tk 1.0 trillion development budget. But it does not mean that there is no shortage of money. The government is indiscriminately collecting tax forcing people to pay and we must say that it should avoid unnecessary expenditure to avoid misuse of funds. Why MPs should have their own budget for local development is not easily understood. We know that people elect MPs to make legislation in greater interest of the nation. Ideally they should make policies and hold debates on major national issues. Parliament is not the place for debating Eid bonus. Implementation of the budget is the function of the bureaucracy. MPs can work as watchdog on parliamentary standing committees and at such other regulatory bodies. But their presence is everywhere now from managing committees of local school and college to owning contracts for big projects at national level. They are even defiant of the Supreme Court order banning them from school bodies. In our view lawmakers must not have their own budget, which will only spread financial indiscipline and corruption. We must say Parliament must return to its position as the center of people’s power and stop sheltering small issues that serve the interest of vested quarters.
