RTI REVELATION Are our MLAs sick? Medical bills Rs 5 crore RTI Reply: Govt Has No Info On Their Diseases N D Shiva Kumar | TNN http://epaper.
For example, in a society where universal healthcare is a distant dream, MLAs receive life-time free medical aid from the government for their families and themselves even if they make it to the Vidhana Soudha just once. When the figure is totted up, it works out to a hefty sum: Rs 5.2 crore, for example, between January Ashok Mahadevappa Pattan (P M Ashok), a Congress MLA from Ramdurg in In 2009, from January to October, except three months — January, May and September — he has got reimbursements from the government. The highest was in February, when he got Rs 5,83,710. While taking the reimbursements, in some months' bill, his name figures as Ashok Mahadevappa Pattan and in others, it is simply P M Ashok. His monthly reimbursements are: Feb - Rs 5,83,710 ; March - Rs 64,155; April - Rs 2,81,895; June - Rs 2,74,830; July - Rs 1,46,876; Aug - Rs 1,41410; Oct - Rs 2,75,232. The government has revealed these details to an RTI application filed by the TOI. However, Ashok is not alone. There are several instances where the government has given lakhs as medical reimbursement to sitting and former MLAs. For instance, in January 2007, Doddanna Gowda Patil got Rs 4.01 lakh, while Vatal Nagaraj Rs 4.55 lakh. In September, M T Krishnappa If a person is elected as MLA once, then the government takes care of the medical expenditure of the member and his/her family till they die. The facility applies even after they retire and are never get elected again. However, strangely, the government has no details about the diseases the members are suffering from for which reimbursements are claimed. The reimbursements are done on producing the bills in a prescribed format. For instance, in 2007, ex-MLA Mohammed Mohinnuddin has applied continuously from Jan to June, while in December, the bill was in his wife's name. The family has drawn a total of Rs 7,44,350 in that year. Some of the ex-MLAs who have frequently applied and got reimbursements are — former BJP president B B Shivappa, former Congress president V S Koujalgi, Rajavardhan, N T Bommanna, G Shivanna, Mallikarjun S Khuba, Suneetha Veerappa Gowdda, S S Koujalgi and M M Sajjan. In less than three years, Shivappa has got Rs 6.02 lakh, while V S Koujalgi and N T Bommanna have got Rs 2.51 lakh and Rs 2.80 lakh respectively. The facilities are governed by the Karnataka Legislature (Members Medical Attendance) Rules, 1969 and Karnataka Legislature (Pensioners Medical Attendance) Rules 2007. Besides the government hospitals, the government has notified private hospitals for the treatment of members and ex-members. The treatment is free at the government hospitals. The member avails of reimbursement if he gets treated at private hospitals or spends on medicines not available at the government hospitals. It is time for the elected representatives to show as much interest in the health of the people who elect them and offer public medical cover. |
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