For the members of the dissolved 12th Lok Sabha, the costs are more immediate -- they will have to vacate their bungalows within three months, surrender telephone connections forthwith, and lose their free travel facility.

They will have to pay 12 times their rent three months on, and bear their telephone, water, electricity charges and the burden of other facilities. They have also to re-book their telephones under their own names, for which, the Lok Sabha Secretariat will not pay.

The over 200 first-time MPs have been hit really hard: they stand to lose their pension, in addition to other facilities. The MPs are entitled for a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 if they complete a minimum tenure of four years. Since they have completed only 13 months as MPs, they forfeit their right to pension.

The MPs are lobbying with the Government and the Speaker to retaintheir perks until the new Lok Sabha is constituted. They have pleaded that since the House has been dissolved prematurely, the facilities should not be withdrawn. A large number of MPs met Speaker G M C Balayogi and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Kumaramanglam in this regard.

The Union Cabinet, which met here this morning, briefly discussed the matter after Kumaramangalam raised it, but no decision has been taken. The Minister is learnt to have written Balayogi, in this regard.

A special request is also being made to Communications Minister Jagmohan to not disconnect telephones, and the government has been asked to wait at least till a final decision is taken by the Speaker.

However, the MPs have been told that they cannot sanction new schemes under the MP Local Assistance for Development Schemes. Only projects already sanctioned and pending with the district collectors can be taken up. First- time MPs who were not familiar with the Rs 2 crore-per-MP-per-year scheme for their constituencies,cannot spend the money anymore.

Most of the 543 MPs have not even touched the scheme for the 1999-2000 as the Union Budget was passed only on April 22 and the House dissolved the same day.

The MPs are hoping they won't face the fate their counterparts in the 11th Lok Sabha, which lasted 19 months, did.