Rubbishing news reports about a hike in the salary of Punjab legislators, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday clarified that there has been no such hike and the matter is still under the consideration of the General Purposes Committee of the state Assembly. 

“A 20-member General Purposes Committee, led by Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh, had sought a report from its five-member sub-committee about the facilities being provided to the legislators,” said spokesperson of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. 

Spokesperson said that the sub-committee has just submitted the report to the General Purposes Committee, and on the basis of that report, a section of the media has published baseless reports about the hike in the wages of MLAs.

The Sub-Committee report was still to be discussed by the General Purposes Committee and after that the recommendations would be forwarded to the Punjab Government, for a final decision, said the spokesperson. 

Notably, the opposition parties had staged protest on the second and last day of the recently held winter session, and lashed out at the ruling Congress for recommending a two-fold jump in the salaries and allowances of MLAs. 

Congress MLA and the sub-committee’s convener Raj Kumar Verka said that the proposed hike was just a suggestion, and the sub-committee reviews the salary and allowances being given to MLAs from time to time. 

The sub-committee has reportedly proposed that the legislators’ total monthly salary, including allowances, be hiked from the current Rs 95,500 to over Rs two lakh. 

Lok Insaaf Party MLA Balwinder Singh Bains, who is also the member of the committee, was the first one to protest in the meeting, and later opposing the hike outside the House. 

Bains informed that the legislator’s current salary is Rs 25,000 and the sub-committee has proposed it to be hiked to Rs 55,000. In addition, it was proposed that the constituency allowance be hiked from Rs 25,000 to Rs 60,000, while the compensatory allowance be increased to Rs 15,000 from Rs 5,000. 

Similarly, the sub-committee had proposed a hike in sumptuary, water and electricity and daily allowances of the MLAs, besides a hike in the fuel budget for MLAs’ security vehicles. 

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal, lashing out at the Congress-led Government, had stated that his party was against the move and the government should rather focus on giving complete debt waiver to farmers and salaries to Government employees.