Profligate plan

The Karnataka legislature secretariat’s reported move to gift all the 300 legislators with gold biscuits, each costing around Rs 55,000, to mark the diamond jubilee of Vidhan Soudha is the most atrocious example of profligacy at the expense of taxpayers. It also betrays insensitivity to people’s growing anger at the potholed Bengaluru roads killing citizens virtually on a daily basis. It is gratifying that such a lavish spending plan has not gone down too well among the potential beneficiaries themselves, across party lines. What is even more unacceptable is that the proposal has been reportedly sent without obtaining prior consent of the administrative departments concerned and their respective ministers in charge. It is hoped that the chief minister, with his years of experience in handling the finance portfolio, will scuttle this ill-advised proposal as the political cost would far exceed the economic cost. If the government goes ahead it would be a political hara-kiri that the CM and the Congress party can ill afford with months to go for polls.

S K Choudhury   Bengaluru

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