While the BJP sought to distance itself from a Parliamentary Panel’s recommendation for a 100 per cent hike in the MPs’ salary, the Congress on Saturday took a dig at the Narendra Modi Government in the wake of a proposal for hiking MPs’ pay packet saying it was “not the right time” to raise lawmakers’ salaries when “farmers and jawans” are not getting their dues.
“When farmers are deprived of fair MSP and Jawans of the OROP, it is not the right time to hike salaries/pension for MPs. Instead a transparent mechanism should be explored to determine salaries/pension of MPs,” Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said on Twitter.
A Parliamentary Panel had pitched for a 100 per cent hike in salaries, constituency allowance and office allowance of MPs along with an approximately 75 per cent raise in pension of ex-MPs apart from facilities for their “companions” in place of “spouses”.
The BJP has, so far, refused to comment on the issue. The party apparently does not favour a huge hike for the MPs. “We have nothing to say. It is our Government at the Centre and the panel is headed by a senior member of our party. But the Centre has apparently put the report in cold storage. It is finally for the Government to take a call on it,” a party leader said.
Currently, an MP gets a basic salary of `50,000 added by `45,000 each for constituency and office expenses, which makes it to `1.4 lakh per month. They wanted to double it to `2.8 lakh per month.
According to sources, the Government is not willing to accept a majority of the recommendations made by the parliamentary panel, which is headed by BJP MP Yogi Adityanath.
