Delhi government slammed for MLA pay hike

The Delhi government led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal faced severe criticism from the Opposition parties and even politicians from other states over its decision to approve a 400 per cent pay hike for legislators in the city.

The BJP, which has only three MLAs in the 70-member House, had walked out of the Assembly before the vote on the bill on Thursday.

Swaraj Abhiyan and its leaders, the founder members of the Aam Aadmi Party, criticised their erstwhile colleagues for the hike. The same people who claimed that they would live a like an “aam aadmi” and not take a bungalow or a big official car, have given themselves the “highest” salary hike in the country, the organisation said. “They said they will not take a big bungalow or big car, will reduce their salary by half and will stay like a common person, but look at this. They have hiked their salary by 400 per cent, which is the highest in the country,” group’s leader Prashant Bhushan said.

“After coming to power, they have appointed their people as assistants with a salary of '70,000-80,000 a month and increased advertising budget by 25 times. These are same people who claimed that they will live like an aam aadmi,” he said.

On Friday, Delhi Congress leaders met lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung and discussed the issue with him. The Congress does not have any legislators in the Assembly.

After the meeting, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken alleged that the AAP government had committed an “illegality” in passing the bill without a consent of the President. “The AAP government, in order to benefit its own MLAs, has committed an illegality by passing the bill without the consent of the President. The bill should have been passed only after the approval of the President,” Maken said. “Mr Jung informed the delegation that only permission was sought by the AAP government to seek the approval of the President on the bill, and not the introduction of the bill in the Assembly.”

Punjab Congress president Capt. Amarinder Singh also took a dig at Mr Kejriwal and compared him with Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

“Kejriwal and his party’s greed for money stands exposed with such a shameless hike in the MLAs’ salaries, which is absolutely unfair, unjustified and outright loot of the public exchequer,” he said.

“Today if anybody can rival the greed of Parkash Singh Badal for money, Kejriwal fits the frame best,” he remarked, adding, “the only difference is that Badal does it illegally and Kejriwal has tried to legalise it.”

“400 per cent hike in these salaries of the MLAs is too shameless and unprecedented in the history of the country and may be the world even, and it only betrays the plutocratic mindset of Kejriwal,” Capt. Singh said in a statement.

The Punjab Congress president pointed out, Kejriwal had raised the MLAs’ salary by over 400 per cent which has never been heard in the history, not even in rich and affluent countries.

“No matter how much hoarse he may cry about integrity and probity in public life, he (Kejriwal) has actually legalised the loot of public exchequer,” he remarked.