With the logjam in Parliament continuing for the second week, Congress MPs have decided not to take their daily allowance for the Winter session, saying the principle of 'no work, no pay' should be followed.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal said several Congress MPs, who met him over the last few days, said they did not want to take their daily allowance of Rs 2000 since Parliament was getting adjourned without transacting any
business.
"Though this is an individual decision, Congress MPs have decided that they will not take their daily allowance from November 10 till the end of this session. The loss to the exchequer due to disruptions in Parliament is very painful.
We should follow the principle of no work, no pay," Bansal said.
He refused to elaborate further, saying it would it good if the Congress MPs speak on this issue on their own.
Each MP gets Rs 2,000 per day when Parliament is on.
Congress has 207 MPs in Lok Sabha and 71 in Rajya Sabha.
Congress spokesperson and MP Manish Tewari had earlier written a letter stating that he did not want to take the daily allowance on days when Parliament did not function.
In reply to a question, Bansal said he personally felt the allowances given to MPs should be stopped for days on which Parliament did not function.
Bansal claimed that some opposition MPs had insisted on coming to Parliament and staging a protest is also part of their work. He rubbished charges from some opposition parties
that not taking allowances was merely "trivialising" the issue.
"We are earnestly hoping members will come to Parliament... I hope Parliament starts running," he said.
The Minister said adjourning Parliament sine die was not a solution and the government had never given it a thought.