Left Front MLAs have decided not to take hike in their salaries and return the additional amount either to the government exchequer or the Chief Minister's relief fund.
The salaries of the MLAs have gone up by Rs 5,000 and they are supposed to get the hike from April.
Left Front has 32 MLAs of which CPI(M) has 26 MLAs followed by RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI having 3, 2 and 1 legislators respectively. So, the collective amount that will be returned to the government exchequer will be Rs 1.60 lakh per month. Interestingly, Left Front ally Congress which has 44 MLAs, is silent on the matter.
Political experts said this was some sort of a protest against Mamata Banerjee. "But if they really wanted to protest against the
Trinamool government, they should not have taken the perquisites."
The Left Front MLAs, however, refused to comment on the matter when asked why they had refused to take the additional amount as they did not raise their voice when The West Bengal Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was placed before the Assembly in March.