Acting on Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s suggestion, the government is moving towards giving the work of restructuring the salary and allowances of members of Parliament to a commission comprising experts and not MPs themselves.The Parliamentary Affairs Ministry has already sent a detailed note to the ministries of Law and Finance. ‘‘We are awaiting their response. The draft (amendment) bill will then be sent to the Cabinet for approval,’’ Secretary Parliamentary Affairs V.K. Agnihotri said.The change would entail amending the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, 1954. Under the Act, a joint parliamentary committee recommends changes in MPs’ salary and allowances, which is then placed before Parliament.At an all-party meet last year, Speaker Chatterjee had suggested that the system of MPs deciding their salary and allowances should go. He had suggested that the work be handed over to experts.The MPs’ salary and allowances were last restructured in 2001 for five years, though the joint parliamentary committee then had taken the help of experts.‘‘Earlier, the process and time-frame for review used to be ad-hoc. In 2001, it was decided that the recommendations would be valid for a period of five years,’’ he said.Sources said the Law Ministry was finetuning the draft (amendment) bill so that it was ‘‘legally tenable’’.
