Rajya Sabha Expense in 2013-2014

How much is the expenditure of Rajya Sabha ?

If you have been following my blog, you would aware of my recent post on Why you should watch Parliament proceedings. With the winter session of both the houses in operation, all we have seen till now is what I term as ‘tamasha‘ The house functions barely for a few days in a year and still there isn’t anything productive happening. Thanks to the demonetization fiasco, that there are discussions only about it. The opposition is demanding the Prime Minister to step in, while the government is trying to ‘get away‘. With so many days being wasted in the parliament, a question struck me How much is the expenditure of Rajya Sabha ?

Well, it was back in 2015 when I had filed an RTI application with the Rajya Sabha demanding their expenditure. News reports then spoke about the government losing a huge sum of money due to non-functioning of the houses. So just to get the facts right, I filed an RTI. It was fortunately one of the fastest (not accurate and partial) response I’ve got till date. As I saw the Prime Minister ‘bunk‘ the Rajya Sabha session post lunch, I decided to pen down this post – How much is the expenditure of Rajya Sabha ? [Also Read: How much was spent on Obama’s Visit to India ?]

Rajya Sabha Expense in 2013-2014

Expenditure of Rajya Sahba

As per the reply received from the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, a total of 2,97,37,08,799 Rs was the expenditure of Rajya Sabha in 2013-2014. That’s about 25 Crores per month ! Isn’t that insane ? Digging further into the reply, following are the few details obtained:

  • Rs 81,61,236 was spent towards Chairman / Dy Chairman
  • Members head received Rs 1,20,30,56,403
  • Rs 54,12,562 towards committee meetings
  • Leader of Opposition head received Rs 33,88,841
  • Rs 1,08,61,63,062 was spent towards the Rajya Sabha secretariat
  • Rs 64,47,12,476 was spent towards the RSTV channel
RTI Response to Rajya Sabha's expenditure
RTI Response to Rajya Sabha’s expenditure

Well, now you know how much of your hard-earned money that goes as tax is ‘wasted‘ when the house doesn’t function. We’ve seen the status of the Rajya Sabha for the last one week and it’s abysmal. However, I was moved by Manmohan Singh’s speech in the Rajya Sabha today. That’s how a person with ‘technical’ background assess the situation. Lauding the motive but bashing the implementation, Singh went on to say that ‘flip-flop’ of rules regularly shows the Prime Minister in poor light. This was probably one of the best responses I’ve heard till day in the parliament.

Hope for the best

I don’t know how the situation would be in the coming days – or weeks I should say. All I hope for is the government taking corrective and robust measures (that dont’t flip-flop) that will help the needy. As rightly pointed out by the opposition today, to clamp down on 6-8% of people with black money, the government has got 94% of country’s population on road ! The condition on the roads is worsening day by day with news of police doing ‘lathicharge‘ at banks. I mean beating up people who are queuing up to take their own money ? Totally Insane !

I hope that this post about How much is the expenditure of the Rajya Sabha helped you get the insights. Do share your views on this and spread the word.

About Atulmaharaj

A seasoned blogger and a content marketer for close to a decade now. I write about Food, Technology, Lifestyle, Travel, and Finance related posts. Blogging brings me joy and the best part is I get to read and e-meet so many amazing bloggers! PS: I'm also the founder for Socialmaharaj.com :) Favorite Quote: "Traveling is like reading a book, one who hasn't traveled, hasn't turned a page.

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