Don’t make us fix own wages: Elders

A day after Lok Sabha members passed the amended MPs Allowances Bill that provides for a hike in pension as well as perks, Rajya Sabha members today pleaded that they be saved the embarrassment of having to fix their own wages in future.

Although the Bill proposing a hike in the wages and perks of the MPs was passed unanimously, a proposal mooted by CPI(M)’s Nilotpal Basu that MPs should not be expected to decide their own wages got widespread support. Basu said, ‘‘there is a conflict of interests here as no other group decides their own wages.’’ The MPs, he added, need to be conscious of the fact that the move evokes public criticism and that for this reason ‘‘Parliament needs to go in for self-introspection.’’

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sushma Swaraj agreed with Basu and suggested that a Parliamentary committee, which decides the wages, should recommend the setting up of an independent body to revise the MPs’ wages and ‘‘rid us of the embarrassment of hiking our own wages’’. Many MPs rose in support of the suggestion. Constitutional expert Fali S. Nariman took the opportunity to remind the MPs that before revising their own wages they must realise that in public opinion their work ‘‘left much to be desired’’.

Advocating voluntary implementation of the no-work-no-wages norm, Nariman said it was time the MPs set an example by not claiming wages and perks for the days the House is adjourned.