Govt-funded offices for MLAs

All the 67 Aam Aadmi Party legislators will soon get offices in their constituencies that will be furnished and equipped with amenities funded by the Delhi government.

The constituency offices of MLAs are expected to work as local contact units of the government by accepting complaints and applications of the public, thus, mitigating the need for residents to come all the way to the chief ministers’ public grievance cell in the Delhi secretariat, said a government functionary.

“Even the three BJP legislators would be encouraged to use the Arvind Kejriwal government’s proposal to help set up offices,” said an aide of Finance Minister Manish Sisodia.

Once the legislators’ offices are functional, the AAP legislators will be expected to be available for public grievance redressal between 9 am and 11 am.

“The chief minister and cabinet ministers might be exempted from daily presence in the constituency office,” said an AAP leader.

A west Delhi legislator confirmed the on-going process for setting up offices.
“The work on setting up the office is still on, we have identified the office space and conveyed to the government,” he said, adding that apart from office staff and computers the official funding may also take care of the rent and power and telephone bills.

The installation of photocopy machines and fax will speed up the process of referring urgent complaints and requests to the Kejriwal’s office for action.

“Some legislators who are in their second tenure as an elected representative are better organised and already have an office. So, those MLAs who do not need a rented accommodation will be asked to communicate this to the government,” said an AAP leader.

A BJP legislator said he had not received any information from the government on setting up office. “Our party leaders may not really need help for offices as they have been serving people for years through an established set-up,” he said.

“The first-time MLAs of the AAP would need such facilities more than others,” he said.