Under attack, panel defends proposal for MLAs’ pay hike

Members of the committee claimed that the recommendations were made in a professional manner.

“The Delhi Assembly is perhaps the only legislative body in the country where members are not entitled to any official rent-free accommodation or any House Rent Allowance. The committee decided not to alter the status-quo,” stated Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara, member-secretary of the committee.

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“Had we gone purely by comparison, we could not have resisted the temptation to propose some benefit on this account as well. But we stuck to the decision to purely go by the context of Delhi,” he added.

He pointed out that in 2014, the basic monthly salary of a MLA in Assam was Rs 60,000, and it was “surprising” to see reports which claimed that Delhi MLAs were set to get the highest salaries in India.

“The constituency allowance already being paid to MLAs in Goa at present is Rs 90,000, despite the fact that it is a smaller assembly, in terms of membership as well as the population represented by each MLA. Our recommendation for constituency allowance is Rs 50,000 only,” said Suryadevara.

The committee has also recommended that the current practice — of lawmakers getting their domestic electricity and water bills reimbursed — should be done away with.

“The principle is that like every salaried person, the MLA too should pay for his/her domestic electricity and water bills from his/her salary,” said the member secretary.

Suryadevara added that another recommendation was “of Rs 70,000 per month for office/research/secretarial assistance to be paid by the MLA through cheque or electronic transfer. It is proposed by the committee that the said amount be reimbursed to the MLA only on production of receipts from those who are employed by him/her, under this head”.

Suryadevara also noted that Delhi is probably the only state where MLAs do not receive any housing loan.
The annual travel allowance of Rs 3,00,000 for MLAs is already being paid in a few states, he said, with a few additional benefits such as free travel in state transport service vehicles and free railway passes.

“We chose not to follow those liberal terms,” said the committee member.

“Similarly, there are many other heads which we decided not to adopt into the salary structure of Delhi MLAs,” he said.

But other political parties continued to protest against the proposed hike, with members of the Delhi Youth Congress holding a protest outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence on Wednesday.

The Youth Congress members tried to break through the barriers placed outside the CM’s residence, but were prevented from doing so by the Delhi Police.

Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken claimed that the recommendations “go against principles that the AAP government supposedly professes.”

Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay claimed that the salary hike was “abnormal” and accused the AAP of playing politics with public money.