Peace Party MLA donates pay to defence ministry for remainder of his term

Worried over the low defence budget allocation hobbling the country’s armed forces, Peace Party MLA from Rae Bareli Akhilesh Singh has donated his perks and salary (around Rs 60,000 a month) for his entire remaining term as a Vidhan Sabha member to the defence ministry. Singh claimed he had spoken to 60 MPs and 138 MLAs on the issue and all of them agreed to his suggestions that all MLAs, MPs and government employees should contribute a day’s salary to the defence ministry every month, the defence budget should not be less than 4% of the total GDP and the government must levy a special defence tax on luxury goods.

“I will try to get a resolution in this regard passed by the Vidhan Sabha during its session beginning from Monday and forward the same to the centre to act upon all the three suggestions,” he said at a press conference here on Friday.

“By donating my monthly salary to the defence ministry, I have just tried to make a small contribution to the nation, expecting others to do the same so that the

SINGH CONDEMNED MUZAFFARNAGAR VIOLENCE WHERE HE CLAIMED NOT LESS THAN 300 PEOPLE HAD BEEN KILLED

lack of budget does not work as a constraint on our defence forces,” he said. India faced the threat of a joint attack by China and Pakistan but the armed forces were not well-equipped to counter the danger because of the inadequate defence budget coming in the way of purchase of modern weapons, he observed.

“The salary has stopped coming to my account from August after I informed the Vidhan Sabha speaker in writing about my decision to contribute all my salaries and perks (to the defence ministry),” he said.

Replying to a question, Singh condemned Muzaffar nagar violence where he claimed not less than 300 people had been killed. He praised chief minister Akilesh Yadav, terming him a good human being but said he was not able to rein in the bureaucrats who he alleged were misleading him.