Session costs a bomb

Holding the legislature sessions costs the government heavily. Acording to secretariat sources, the average expenditure to conduct the 225-member Assembly session is about Rs 1.5 lakh per hour. For the Council, the cost would be around Rs 1 lakh an hour. This is only the running cost incured on power, stationary and other logistics.

If administrative expenditure, members’ fee and perks like travel allowance and dearness allowance are taken into account then the expenses shoot up to Rs 3.25 lakh per hour for the Assembly and Rs 2.25 lakh for the Council, the sources pointed out. 

With both the Assembly and the Council being kept open during the night in wake of the day-night dharna by the Opposition, the administrative cost has only gone up. For the record, both the Houses did not conduct much business because of the agitation.