Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha on Friday tried to corner the government over the delay in raising the wages and allowances of MPs despite a parliamentary committee report recommending the same.
Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha on Friday tried to corner the government over the delay in raising the wages and allowances of MPs despite a parliamentary committee report recommending the same. The members demanded that their salaries should be higher than the revised scale of the Cabinet secretary.
Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party said that after the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission, the wages of MPs was less than that of a PA in the government. It is less than the salary a legislator in the Delhi Assembly gets. It is not even half of the revised salary of Maharashtra legislators and one-third of those in Telengana, he said.
Mr Yadav said that, while inflation has soared, the salaries of MPs, who also have to entertain a lot of public visitors, has remained static. In July too, the SP had raised the demand for the early implementation of the recommendations of a parliamentary committee headed by Yogi Adityanath on wages and allowances of MPs.
The Cabinet secretary draws a salary of Rs 2.5 lakh per month after the government implemented the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.
The parliamentary committee is reported to have recommended doubling the salary and allowances of MPs to Rs 2.8 lakh per month.
The Congress’ Anand Sharma said this is the first time the government is silent on a committee recommendation that has been discussed and unanimously approved.
“Thousands of crores of rupees are spent on Prime Minister’s visits abroad but there is no hike in salaries of MPs,” he said.
