Seven more Indian MPs have been caught on television asking for cash, hot on the heels of a similar scandal involving parliamentarians earlier this month, Star News TV said on Tuesday.
Star News aired pictures of the sting operation which showed MPs from different parties, including the ruling Congress, apparently asking for cash ranging from five to 45% of the project value to approve spending on public works programmes in their constituencies.
The television footage, first aired late on Monday and repeated on television on Tuesday, was the second similar expose by a TV channel in a month.
Earlier this mont Aaj Tak television station broadcast images of 11 MPs grabbing wads of cash in return for asking questions in Parliament.
”I am shocked. If it is found to be true, consequences should follow,” Somnath Chatterjee, speaker of Parliament’s lower house, said about the latest incident, according to The Asian Age newspaper.
Each of the more than 700 MPs in the two houses of Parliament gets 20-million rupees ($445 000) every year to fund development projects in their constituencies.
One legislator, however, was honest, Star TV reported, and refused to accept offers of money in return for approving spending.
Tainted politicians are a major issue in India.
A study last year by an independent watchdog found that nearly one-quarter of the more than 540 people elected to Parliament in 2004 faced criminal charges ranging from murder to rape. – AFP