Actress Rekha and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar may have done India proud in their respective fields, but their performance as nominated members of the Rajya Sabha (RS) is disappointing, to say the least. Rekha attended 18 of the 348 days, while Tendulkar has 23 days to his credit; both of them were nominated to the RS by the Congress-led UPA government and their term began in April 2012.
Their dismal performance as members of the Upper House, however, has come at a cost: salary and other expenses paid to 62-year-old Rekha is Rs 65 lakh, while that on Tendulkar, who is listed as support staff by IPL team Mumbai Indians, cost India Rs 58.8 lakh, the IndiaSpend reported, citing an analysis by Factly.in, a data journalism portal.
In other words, the daily expenditure on Rekha is around Rs 360,000 (based on her attendance) while for the cricketer, it comes to Rs 256,000.
The term of both the nominated RS members ends on April 26, 2018.
The Rajya Sabha has a strength of 245 members, of which 12 are nominated representing various walks of life, such as arts, literature, sports, law and business.
A member of Parliament (MP) gets Rs 50,000 per month, in addition to other allowances such as travelling reimbursement and office allowances.
Apart from being an MP, 44-year-old Tendulkar also endorses many products for a fee, the latest being GM Pens International, the Chennai-based firm that makes Rorito brand writing instruments, announced last month.
The budget session of Parliament this year assumes significance since the four enabling legislations for rolling out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) were passed during the session. On Thursday (April 6), when the Rajya Sabha was debating the legislations, Tendulkar was seen watching the Mumbai Indians-Rising Pune Supergiant match.
