Sum will be given to the legislators for employing data entry operators

Allowances may have become a luxury for most young working professionals in the country, courtesy recession. But, politics is one business which knows no meltdown.

Our Dilli netas got yet another allowance from the government, that is from the taxpayer's money, but for what? Running their laptops. Which laptops? The ones they got for free from the same government.

The state government has allocated Rs 10,000 per month each for its MLAs and ministers to meet expenditures on data entry operators, engaged for their laptops.

The government will meet expenses incurred under this head from the budgetary allocation of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Secretariat.

"The competent authority has decided to enhance the facility regarding reimbursement of Rs 10,000 per month to all the members of Legislative Assembly, Delhi Vidhan Sabha (irrespective of their being ministers etc) on account of expenditure met by them on engagement of data entry operator for operating laptops given to them...," the General Administration Department (GAD) said in a reply to an RTI application.

The RTI application was filed by Delhi-based activistu00a0 Subhash Agarwal. Acting further on Agarwal's another question in the same RTI application if "such staff (data entry operators) will be provided by following normal recruiting rules of government", Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has directed the PIO of Delhi government to provide the applicant "all the correspondence and file notings related to the order".

Delhi has 70 MLA's, including six ministers, to whom the government has issued laptops.