Author: Subrata Nagchoudhury
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 23, 2001
Last week his comrades named him
chairman of the People's Front, last night the West Bengal government in
an apparent gesture of gratitude for his commitment to the working class,
awarded Jyoti Basu a retirement package that works out to, hold your breath,
over Rs 50 lakh per year!
The government's decision is all
the more shocking coming as it does when a PIL was filed in the Calcutta
High Court alleging that huge public money -- with neither legal nor administrative
sanction -- was being spent on undue privileges to Basu even after he stepped
down as Chief Minister in November last year.
Come May, Basu will even cease to
be an MLA but for the government, that doesn't matter. See whatv they have
sanctioned:
* He will continue to stay in Indira
Bhawan, the airconditioned irrigation bungalow in Salt Lake inaugurated
by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The market rent, PWD engineers say,
will be at least Rs 30,000 per month. Incidentally, over a decade ago,
the government had shelled out Rs 16 lakh for a lift at his Hindusthan
Park residence in south Calcutta where he was supposed to have moved in.
Instead, he moved to Indira Bhawan. The lift, meanwhile, is still there.
* The road in front of Indira Bhawan
which happens to be a main thoroughfare in Salt Lake remains barricaded
despite protests from local residents.
* The government will pay Basu's
electricity bills which comes to about Rs. 16,000 per month on an average.
Apart from internal electrical fittings, Basu's Z-plus security -- a status
which the state government has given him -- demands proper neon lighting
of the complex. According to the PIL, bills worth Rs 4 lakh for a period
from August 1994 to July 1999 haven't been paid. For lesser mortals, that
would have meant disconnection.
* The government will pay for a
security detail of 37 personnel. These include two command units of seven
personnel, two escort units of six, 17 house guards, anti-sabotage unit
personnel, emergency medical staff and driver for the bullet-proof car.
Added to these are expenses for security gadgets: doorframe metal detector,
walkie talkies and cellphones. A senior police official says the cost for
security set-up and personnel would add upto a minimum of Rs 1.5 lakh per
month.
* All telephone bills will be reimbursed
by the government. It could be verified that the call charges and rental
for at least one telephone line at Indira Bhawan was Rs 7,000 in a recent
cycle.
* Basu will also get a private assistant,
whose salary of Rs 6,000 per month will be paid for by the government.
* All medical expenses will be met
by the government. Basu is known to have his medical check-ups done in
London. This apart, the government will pay for all his tarvel expenses
in any part of the country.
When asked why the Cabinet decided
to offer these benefits, Basu's successor Buddhadeb Bhattacharya -- who
himself lives in his two-room flat in south Calcutta -- said that the decision
was taken four months ago.
``It is unthinkable,'' says former
Congress chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray. ``It is unprincipled and
against all norms of fairness. I am surprised Basu has become so greedy.''
Calling the decision ``scandalous,'' Ray said: ``His acceptance will the
financial integrity of Bengal chief ministers. At least two former chief
minsters of Bengal have died of acute financial crisis and in case of at
least one Basu was in the government and did nothing.''
