New Delhi, March 18 Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha member Javed Ali Khan on Wednesday reiterated the need to provide proper retirement benefits to former parliamentarians.
Participating in the farewell event for retiring members in the Upper House, Khan pointed out the need for the government to issue instructions to empanelled hospitals to treat ex-MPs in the same manner as sitting MPs while availing of CGHS benefits. He also proposed allowing former members to make railway reservations over the phone.
Khan said, "Although many MPs and ex-MPs live a comfortable life, and they don't need any support or help, there are people like us who do not have any profession except being a political worker."
It is important that such MPs receive proper retirement benefits, Khan asserted. He urged Union Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda, who is also the Leader of the House, to instruct all the empanelled hospitals to treat ex-MPs in the same manner as they treat sitting MPs.
On railway reservation, he said that while sitting MPs can book tickets via phone, ex-MPs have to either go in person or send someone to the counter to book a ticket.
"This will give the ex-MPs some respect and also avoid them having to stand in queues in old age or being dependent on someone to reserve their tickets," he said.
Participating in the discussion, retiring member Ayodhya Rami Reddy Alla (YSRCP) stressed on the need to re-strategise the working of the Rajya Sabha with clear deliverables outlined for the next 25 years in order to aid in India becoming a developed nation.
"If we want to become a developed nation, I think this House and the people of this House must really revisit their working and also their deliverables must be rewritten," he said.
Alla said the effectiveness of the Upper House must increase, while also calling for increasing attendance of the members and more hours of work.
Retiring women members Priyanka Chaturvedi (SS-UBT) and Fauzia Khan (NCP-SCP) recollected the historic passage of the Women's Reservation Act, calling it as one of the highlights of their tenures as members of the Upper House, and hoped that it would be implemented at the earliest in order to let more women participate in the legislature.
Shaktisinh Gohil (Congress) lamented the absence of a common place, like the Central Hall in the old Parliament building, where members across parties could meet and interact.
Bhagwat Karad (BJP) noted that he would take the experience of being a part of the government and the member of Rajya Sabha for the betterment of India and its people.
Rajani Ashokrao Patil (Congress) said, even though she is retiring from the House, she will continue her journey in politics.
Saket Gokhale of the All India Trinamool Congress said he has been very privileged to sit in the Upper House and observe the interventions of legal luminaries like Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Vivek Tankha.
"Despite our political and ideological differences, I have been privileged to have some deeply meaningful interactions with my colleagues from the Treasury benches. It is a very sad reality of the times today that if I mention their names they will get into trouble with their leadership, so I am not going to do that," Gokhale said.
Bhubaneswar Kalita of the BJP said this is his second farewell from the Rajya Sabha and probably he will not get a third farewell as he is not coming back.
Kiran Choudhry (BJP) said her tenure has been very brief but it has been extremely meaningful and enriching for her as even in a short time she has learnt a lot from the collective wisdom of the members of the Upper House.