In December 2024, the Central Government introduced two bills related to ‘One Nation One Election’ in Parliament, which have been sent to the Joint Committee for discussion. Earlier, the Cabinet had also approved a detailed report in this regard prepared by the committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind. Now it has been revealed in RTI that the Central Government has spent about Rs 95 thousand in preparing this report. This information has been given by the Law Ministry in response to an RTI filed by a media firm.
Cost per day Rs. less than 500
The report prepared by the high-level committee on ‘One Nation, One Election’ aims to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the country. The government says that this will not only reduce government expenditure but will also increase administrative efficiency and capacity. To prepare this report, a committee was formed under the chairmanship of former President Kovind on 2 September 2023 and the committee submitted a detailed report to the government on 14 March 2024.
It costs Rs 491 per day to prepare this report
The daily cost of preparing this report is Rs 491 and the committee has spent a total of Rs 95 thousand 344 in preparing the report. It can be assumed that the committee has worked day and night in preparing the report and if non-working days along with holidays are also added, the daily cost may be slightly higher.
This includes travel and printing costs.
In the RTI, detailed information was sought from the government about the expenses incurred in preparing the report. This includes drafting costs, research costs, travel and printing costs. In the information given by the government, the expenditure has been divided into various categories which include information, computer and telecommunication expenditure. Apart from this, office expenses and professional fees are also included. This information is given by adding the costs of machinery, digital equipment, travel, printing and publishing.
Members did not receive fees from the committee
In another information sought regarding payment of committee members, the government said that none of the committee members who prepared the report received fees and did so without payment. The committee members come from diverse backgrounds, including former President Ram Nath Kovind, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, senior lawyer . Harish Salve, former CVC Sanjay Kothari, besides Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal were specially invited members of the committee. Apart from this, Nitin Chandra served as Secretary in this high level committee.
