Himachal House passes bill to hike MLAs' perks

Shimla: MLAs in Himachal Pradesh assembly on Saturday voted in favour of a bill to hike their travel bills from Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs four lakh towards their journeys, both within the country and abroad even as the House demonstrated a rare unity in seeking periodic hike in the salaries without going through the legislative process.

Barring a lone CPM MLA Rakesh Singha, who vehemently stood against the bill and asked the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to withdraw it, none of the MLAs, including sitting ministers and independents–one of the a millionaire, opposed the hike.

Rather, one after the other, two Congress MLAs –former PCC president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and ex-minister Ram Lal Thakur gave series of justifications to empress upon the government to spend more on the MLAs' perks, salaries and facilities in the 'public interest'. They claimed MLAs overall financial conditions were precarious, thus needs the government notwithstanding this, the public perception against the MLAs is highly questionable.

"Every time, any bill is introduced in the House for enhancing salaries and perks for members, media publishes stories, and social media trolls.Why can't we create a mechanism to ensure hikes in the salaries as happens in case of government servants ?" Ram Lal Thakur pointed out, making his point in the assembly.

He went to extent appealing media not to put elected representatives, both MPs and MLAs in bad lime-lights for simply asking an increase in their salaries keeping inview the high cost of living and maintaining their 'offices', and also travels.

Thakur said "MLAs, in terms of official protocols, are placed one step higher than Chief Secretary. So why can't the government fixes salaries for the MLAs higher than what was being drawn by the state's Chief Secretary? It could be Rs 1 higher than that of Chief Secretary, he proposed.

Sukhu was in great pain to explain that the bill was not going to benefit the MLAs in any manner as they will be required to seek reimbursements for expanses incurred on travelling outside the state,in the country or abroad .This is a facility, which 90 percent of the MLAs (as par records of Vidhan Sabha) have not availed so far .Thus, the bill does'nt promise hike as such.

He asked "why can't this money be paid directly to MLAs accounts and also be carried forward if not spent during the year". Last year, the total expanses claimed by MLAs was meagre Rs 15 lakhs.There is no big deal in increasing the travel limit from Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs 4 lakhs.

Sukhu quoted example of some states like Punjab where the government has provide vehicles. Let there be a provision of vehicle, driver, petrol and office for the MLAs as meeting the cost out of Rs 55,000 salary (excluding other allowances) was a tall order in the present day set-up.

Before the bill was passed, Speaker Dr Rajeev Bindal shared the concern of the MLAs and suggest the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to examine Delhi model, adopted by the AAP government, where the MLAs interests are taken care very well.

Earlier to this, Singha, said the state's high debt of Rs 50,000 cr and country's slow economy does'nt justify the proposed hike. The bill must be withdrawn to send a right message in the public.