Speaker buys glasses for ₹50k, gets reimbursements

A controversy has erupted after Kerala assembly speaker P Sreeramakrishnan bought a pair of spectacles for nearly ₹50,000 and got the amount reimbursed from the state exchequer.

The information with regard to the glasses emerged Saturday morning, a day after the presentation of the CPI(M)-led LDF government’s 2018-19 Budget, which advocated stringent financial discipline to tide over the crisis.

Replying to an RTI query by advocate DB Binu of Kochi, the legislature secretariat has stated that the speaker spent ₹49,900 for spectacles — ₹4,900 for the frame and ₹45,000 for the lens.

The speaker had also got medical reimbursement ₹4.25 lakh between October 5, 2016, and January 19, this year.

The speaker said it was on doctor’s advice that the spectacles had been purchased.

Binu said he had also sought the copies of the bills submitted by Sreeramakrishnan which had not been given and hence he would approach the state Information Commission against the furnishing of incomplete disclosure by the assembly secretariat.

Earlier, health minister KK Shylaja had landed in a controversy after she purchased spectacles worth ₹28,000 and got it reimbursed from the exchequer.

There were also allegations

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