KOCHI:A proposal to make it mandatory for outgoing legislators, including MPs and MLAs, to give guidance and training for one year to new legislators, suggested by an Alappuzha native, has been noted by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The PMO has forwarded the proposal to the Ministry of Law & Justice, Lok Sabha Secretariat, Rajya Sabha Secretariat and the Election Commission of India. The PMO had earlier forwarded A Sivasubramanian's suggestion that the tenure of MLAs and MPs should be limited to a maximum of two terms to help curb corruption in the top echelons of power.
In his latest proposal, Sivasubramanian suggested the outgoing people's representatives and one of his private secretaries (applicable for MPs and MLAs only) should be given a mandatory order to "guide, teach, educate, train, inculcate all government programmes, developmental activities, during their tenure to the new people's representatives". The outgoing representatives should be with him for at least one year and meet and communicate with him frequently and compulsorily once in a week along with his present new assignments, if any, for the smooth transition of developmental activities of the government, the letter said.
Sivasubramanian, who is a perfumer by profession, said it should be a mandatory requirement of the outgoing representative from panchayat to MP level to start getting pensions for the whole of their life. "So they also have the duty and responsibility for the smooth functioning of the system without interruptions because of lack of experience by new people's representatives. The new representative should also report about this to the government once in three months in the first year, only then will he be entitled to government pension," the letter to the PMO said.
"If the past representative is no more, one of his private secretaries should do this for one year."
Sivasubramanian also proposed fixing a ceiling on the pensions (combine all pensions) of legislators.