Skip to main content

Salary hike of MPs

The salary hike Bill is one more taint on the already receding image of politicians who run our country. The bill, seeking to raise the salaries of MPs three fold has been unanimously passed by both houses of the parliament, leading to a furor among the people.

To worsen the situation, Opposition demanded a fivefold hike, and was unhappy with a threefold increase. Of course, when compared to their counterparts in developed countries, our MPs receive less salaries, but they do not do the equal amount of work. Most MPs visit their constituencies only during election campaign visits.


The provision for raising salary, daily allowance and minimum and additional pension would involve a recurring annual expenditure of Rs.103.76 crore. With problems like price rise and farmer suicides facing the nation, this is the most inappropriate time to hike salaries of MPs.

When there are criminal charges, pending cases, corruption charges against the MPs, they absolutely do not deserve a pay hike. When it comes to Bills that are absolutely necessary for the development of the nation, MPs take days to come to a consensus, but in the case of this bill, which was raised by Parliament Affairs minister Pawan Kumar when it wasn’t even slated in the agenda for the day, the MPs passed the Bill within 2 days.

What skews the argument against them is that most MPs—there are, however, exceptions—are extremely wealthy, as their affidavits with the Election Commission show. ADR pegs the average assets of a Lok Sabha MP at Rs 4-5 crore, even after excluding three MPs with assets of over Rs 100 crore from the calculation.

The payroll has started and not much can be done now. Until of course, we land ourselves on a national financial emergency.

By discussing the pay hike we have nothing left to decide. What we indeed should be discussing is the accountability of the funds that they control (Rs 2 crore per yr for their constituency) and their overall productivity. Let them take some more money if they wish to but they need to work to justify this hike. Twelve ministers of state in Maharashtra govt who cost us Rs 12 crore/yr have no work to do at all. These are the things which all of us should be focusing at.

My blog: manasa-chlamydomonas.blogspot.com

Name: Manasa K Kumar

Location: Chennai, India.


Labels:

Comments

Tushar Mangl said…
The funny thing is that these politicians regularly ask for monitoring of the salaries that top CEOS of private companies get.
December 13, 2010 at 1:13 PM
Renu said…
Politicians are masters of this country and they can demand anything and get it too.
December 14, 2010 at 10:02 AM
SM said…
let them have any salary we need to demand accountablity
January 11, 2011 at 1:42 PM
Post a Comment

Also read

Does India need communal parties?

I think, it was Tan's post on this blog itself, Republic Day Event, where this question was raised. My answer. YES. we need communal parties even in Independent, Secular India. Now let me take you, back to events before 1947. When India was a colony of the British Empire. The congress party, in its attempt to gain momentum for the independence movement, heavily used Hinduism, an example of which is the famous Ganesh Utsav held in Mumbai every year. Who complains? No one. But at that time, due to various policies of the congress, Muslims started feeling alienated. Jinnah, in these times, got stubborn over the need of Pakistan and he did find a lot of supporters. Congress, up till late 1940's never got bothered by it. And why should we? Who complains? No one. But there were repercussions. The way people were butchered and slaughtered during that brief time when India got partitioned, was even worse than a civil war scenario. All in the name of religion. And there indeed was cr...
40 comments
Read more

Did You Ever Love Me? Book Review: Can Rithvik singh turn heartbreak into a homecoming?

Did You Ever Love Me? by Rithvik Singh is a tender contemporary poetry collection about love, heartbreak, longing, self worth and learning to let go. Its greatest strength is emotional accessibility: Singh writes directly to readers who feel intensely and care deeply. The collection offers comfort without pretending heartbreak is simple, though its simplicity may occasionally feel familiar to seasoned poetry readers. Did you Ever Love Me? Have you ever loved someone so completely that, after they left, you were left wondering whether they had ever understood what they had been given? Not merely whether they loved you, but whether they ever noticed how much you loved them, how much patience you offered, how many small things you remembered, or how often you chose to stay when leaving might have been easier. There is a particular loneliness in that question because it rarely arrives at a dramatic moment. More often, it finds you while you are doing something completely ordinary. Yo...
1 comment
Read more

A decade of live free: The Kaftan Company Marks 10 Years with Middle East Expansion and 'Homebody' Nightwear Collection

India's first kaftan-only brand grows from a single idea to 1000+ SKUs, four categories, a Hyderabad flagship and global fulfilment and now targets the 21–34 "homebody generation" Hyderabad, 7/9/26: The Kaftan Company (TKC), India's first brand dedicated exclusively to kaftans, has announced its expansion into multiple markets across the Middle East as it completes ten years in business. The announcement comes alongside the launch of Homebody, a nightwear collection built for women aged 21–34 who have stopped treating a night in as a consolation prize. Founded in 2016 by Prakruti Gupta Rao and Navin Rao, TKC set out to take a garment that Indian women wore at home but rarely talked about and make it a category in its own right. A decade on, the brand has grown into the widest-range kaftan player in the market with over 1000 SKUs spanning women's wear, maternity, kidswear and men's loungewear, a presence across Myntra, Nykaa Fashion, Tata CLiQ and Zivame, relat...
Post a Comment
Read more