PM Modi should get a salary hike, says Kejriwal

“I was reading in a newspaper that now the salaries of Delhi MLAs will be more than that of the Prime Minister. I advocate that our Prime Minister’s salary should also increase if it is less than Rs 1 lakh.”

“What if the Prime Minister goes to meet (US President Barack) Obama and Obama asks him what his salary is. What will he say that it is even less than Rs 1 lakh. The Prime Minister should get respectable salary.”

Kejriwal said the decision to propose increases the monthly salaries of the Delhi lawmakers was to stop them from taking bribes.

The Delhi Assembly has passed an Amendment Bill, seeking a whopping four-fold increase in the salary of legislators and ministers. If approved by the Centre, their salary will increase from Rs 88,000 to over Rs 2 lakh per month.

Defending his government’s sanctioning a huge raise for Delhi’s legislators, Kejriwal said that even after the salary hike takes effect, the Capital’s MLAs won’t earn even “120th fraction” of what editors of media organisations and top TV anchors earn.

The Bill to increase Delhi legislators’ salaries was introduced and passed on Thursday in the face of opposition from BJP MLAs who said this was probably not the right time for legislators to take an increment.

“We will abstain from voting for this Bill because we do not think this is the right time for it. Even if you have to introduce it, the increment needs to lowered,” said the Leader of Opposition, Vijender Gupta.

The recommendations were proposed by an expert committee headed by the former secretary general of the Lok Sabha, PDT Achari. 

The committee was constituted on August 21 after several MLAs of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party complained that they were unable to make ends meet with the existing pay package.

AAP came in for further criticism in the light of its statement that the government is running extremely low on funds and despite its ‘aam aadmi’ credentials, sought to ensure its own bank balance above all.