What nation really pays for MP's lunches

The Hindu reports that the nation paid Rs 60 Cr to subsidise MP's lunch during the last 5 years. The numbers are revealed as a response to an RTI petition.

Let's look a bit deeper into the numbers. Rs 60 Cr in five years translates into Rs 12 Cr per year or Rs 1 Cr per month. If we take that the canteen functioned 20 days a month , with 500 MPs eating at the canteen on an  average per day (considering that the parliament is not in session always, I think these numbers are quite high) , the subsidy amounts to Rs (1 Cr)/(20*500) or Rs 1000 per MP, per day. The report quotes typical subsidy for some of the dishes:

Non Vegetarian meal : Rs 66
Stewed Vegetables : Rs 38
Fish Fried with chips: Rs 70
Mutton cutlet : Rs 52
Mutton curry : Rs 60
Masala Dosa : Rs 24
Roti is sold at a profit of Rs 0.23 per roti and khomani ka meetha is sold at cost price.

Remember that these subsidies are at today's cost. The subsidies during the previous years would definitely be less as the prices have not changed for a while. Even if you consider that Rs 70 is the average subsidy per dish, the subsidy would amount to an average of 17 dishes per MP per day. I don't know about the MPs, but I found this report hard to digest. Forget about the subsidy loss to the nation for a moment, time to worry about the health of our MPs.

Then The Hindu comes up with the most baffling arithmetic. "Papad costs Rs 1.98 but sold at Rs 1 in these canteens with a whopping subsidy of 98 per cent."

 First judges, and now journalists - are we becoming a nation of arithmetically challenged?

What do we conclude from this report? There are multiple ways to explain these baffling numbers:
1. The numbers are plain wrong and no one attempted to review it for correctness
2. The MPs eat too much. I can't comment on the correctness of this statement, but it is unlikely that MPs overeat to the extent shown by the numbers.
3. More likely explanation is that MPs eat a couple of items a day and the rest is served to others - like journalists or officials/workers in the Parliament - around 10% of Rs 60 Cr consumed by MPs. If this is the case, the uproar in the media about MPs causing this subsidy burden is misplaced. I personally would like to know how much of it is eaten by journalists and what the media have to say about it

Comments

  1. മരകയലുകൾJune 25, 2015 at 10:51 PM

    And another things I failed to understand is a head line from Deccan. They said food is subsidized to 150%. From what I understand in % a 100% subsidy means no money is paid and 150% means money is paid to the people who are eating the food!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mohanakrishnan GopalakrishnanJune 29, 2015 at 2:26 AM

      May be that the MPs are paid to eat in the cafeteria. :-)

      Delete
  2. Mind Over MatterJuly 18, 2015 at 11:24 PM

    Journalists and common sense!, What are talking, Sir. They only know TRP and circulation statistics

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mind Over MatterJuly 18, 2015 at 11:24 PM

    Journalists and common sense!, What are talking, Sir. They only know TRP and circulation statistics

    ReplyDelete

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