Now Telangana lawmakers get hefty constituency fund

Announcement comes amid outrage over swanky residences for public representatives

After luxurious official residences, state lawmakers in Telangana have now been assigned generous constituency development funds amounting to 15 million rupees (Dh824,210) each.

Even as the opposition parties were protesting against the move to provide swanky houses to the lawmakers in their respective constituencies, the K. Chandrasekhar Rao government yesterday issued a formal order sanctioning Rs2.1 billion in constituency development fund for all 119 members of the state assembly and 40 members of the legislative council.

While the state government had initially decided to allocate Rs30 million as the development fund for each lawmaker, half that amount has now been released as the first tranche for the current year.

The move came on a day when the first model of the houses planned for state lawmakers was unveiled for inauguration in Parkal constituency of Warangal district.

The Rs1.2-billion project will cover 104 constituencies in the state where such official residences are to be built.

Opposition criticism

Opposition parties had voiced protest against what they termed wastage of taxpayers’ money to build posh residences for lawmakers. The Bharatiya Janata Party in particular lashed out at the chief minister saying that there was no accountability on how public money was being spent. “This is a criminal waste of taxpayers’ money,” the party’s state spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao said.