Chandigarh, Jun 30 (PTI) The Punjab Assembly passed a bill on Thursday, whereby a former MLA will get pension for only one term, doing away with the practice of drawing the benefit for each term served by a legislator.The Punjab State Legislature Members (Pension and Medical Facilities Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2022 is aimed at ensuring admissibility of pension to the members of the Assembly for a single term only (irrespective of the number of terms served).However, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa sparred after the bill was tabled in the House on the concluding day of the budget session of the Assembly.The state government is expected to save around Rs 19.53 crore annually on account of providing pension to former MLAs for a single term.The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had earlier announced the "one MLA, one pension" concept and said former MLAs would get pension for only one term.The bill was moved by cabinet minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer.Speaking on the bill, Congress legislator Pargat Singh demanded that the pension of a former MLA should be equal to that of a retired chief secretary."According to protocol, an MLA is equal to the chief secretary. Then the pension (of a former MLA) should also be equal to what a retired chief secretary gets," Singh said in the House.Akali MLA Sukhwinder Kumar demanded that the salaries of the personal assistant and the driver of an MLA should also be increased.Congress legislator Bajwa supported Singh"s suggestion and demanded that the pension of a former MLA should be at par with that of a former chief secretary.However, the chief minister said the salaries of the MLAs were not being slashed.On the suggestion of giving pension equal to that of a former chief secretary, Mann pointed out that an employee is eligible to get pension after 20 years of service.He asked how a person who was an MLA for five years could demand pension equal to that of a chief secretary.Taking on Bajwa, Mann asked the Congress members if they did not know about the salary of an MLA when they sought tickets for contesting elections.Interrupting Mann, Bajwa asked, "Why do you make everything dramatic? Why do you always play to the gallery?" Mann said a committee is already there for a review of the salary of the MLAs.Taking a dig at Bajwa, he said the Congress legislator had said in an interview that he wanted to serve the people of his constituency.And now he demands a hike in the salary, the chief minister said.Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Jangilal Mahajan said he joined politics to serve people and had already announced that he would not take salary as an MLA.Meanwhile, the House also passed the Punjab Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2022.With the passage of the bill, the Rural Development Fund (RDF) shall be spent on various projects in rural areas, including construction or repair of approach roads to mandis (wholesale grain markets) and procurement centres, setting up of new mandis or procurement centres and augmenting storage facilities at mandis.The House also passed the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the Punjab Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill, 2022.Later, the House was adjourned sine die. PTI CHS VSD RC