Double MPs' salary, allowances: Parl panel members to govt

Several members in a parliamentary panel have pitched for quick implementation of the Centre's proposed move to double salary and allowances of MPs and insisted that report of any government-constituted committee on the matter must be channelled through it.

At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament on Wednesday, a number of MPs favoured routing of report of any independent mechanism, being set up to review salary and allowances of MPs, through the panel, which draws its power from Parliament, sources said.

They said before the report is handed over to the government it should be vetted by the committee. The members also insisted their pay and perks should be equal to that of the Cabinet Secretary, they said.

The Centre had in September last proposed to constitute a three-member Emoluments Commission to determine salary and allowances of Members of Parliament and it was endorsed at the two-day All India Whips Conference on September 29 and 30.

The proposal had come in the backdrop of a controversy over a parliamentary panel's recommendations in June last to double the pay and perks of lawmakers. The Joint Committee, headed by BJP MP Yogi Adityanath, in its meetings in May and July 2015 had opined that there was a need for an independent system/mechanism to review salary and allowances of MPs.