A Parliamentary panel today submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) seeking a massive increase in the salaries, allowances and other benefits for Members of Parliament.
The grouse within the legislators, that came to fore during the panel’s meet today, is that the government went ahead and implement the Seventh Pay Commission without taking any decision on raising their pay.
MPs are of view that after the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission, salaries of government’s employees have surpassed theirs which makes a revision in their pay scale a must.
According to the committee, an MP's salary should be hiked from Rs 50,000 per month to Rs 1 lakh, constituency allowance from Rs 45,000 to Rs 90,000 and secretarial assistance plus office allowance from Rs 45,000 to Rs 90,000.
The panel has also recommended a five-fold increase in allocation under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme from Rs 5 crore to Rs 25 crore.
The proposal, if cleared by the PMO, will be placed before the Union Cabinet for a final nod.
Other recommendations that have been sent to the PMO include – increase in the number of air travel, two-fold hike in parliamentary allowance, Rs 40,000 salary each for two PAs. It also said that MPs representing the areas that do not have a railways network should be given eight flight coupons.
It should be noted that in the recently concluded Monsoon Session of the Parliament, a group of 250 MPs from both the Houses had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and submitted a memorandum seeking hike in their pay.
Reports had earlier suggested that the Prime Minister was averse to the idea of MPs giving themselves a salary raise and was in favour of salaries of lawmakers being linked to a certain post.
Today’s development suggests that the PM has had a change of heart and may soon clear the Parliamentary panel’s proposal.
