Haryana Assembly to take up salary revision bill tomorrow

Chandigarh, August 30 

Haryana Assembly Speaker Kanwar Pal on Tuesday deferred the bill to revise the salary of law makers and it will be taken up on Wednesday in the House.

Taking up the legislative business here on the third day of the monsoon session, Pal said the Haryana Legislative Assembly (Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill, 2016 will be taken up tomorrow. The bill along with other nine bills was tabled in the House.

Raising the issue after the bill was tabled, Tek Chand Sharma (BSP), member of the committee, said though in protocol the MLAs were above the state chief secretary, yet the salary hike proposed in the bill had “disappointed” the elected representatives.

“Today this bill came up and we studied. We felt strange. Earlier, a newspaper wrote that MLAS’ salary will go up to Rs 3 lakh per month and now papers wrote that MLAs have gone bankrupt. It is a strange matter,” Sharma said.

“If this bill is introduced as it is, then it is better that salary is not raised,” he said while drawing support from members cutting across party lines.

The BSP MLA said that a committee headed by BJP MLA Whip Gian Chand Gupta had made recommendations in this regard.

Intervening in the discussion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ram Bilas Sharma assured the House that a “consensus” would be evolved on the issue in consultation with the Speaker following the House deciding to discuss the bill tomorrow.

The Bill has proposed a monthly salary and allowances for the legislators, which include monthly salary (Rs 40,000 from Rs 30,000), constituency allowance (Rs 40,000 from Rs 30,000), office allowance (Rs 15,000 from Rs 10,000), telephone allowance (Rs 15,000 without any increase over the currently allowance) and secretarial allowance (Rs 15,000 each for two persons from Rs 15,000 for one person).

It has also proposed daily allowance of Rs 2,000 per day for maximum 15 days in a month from Rs 1,500 per day, free travelling facility of Rs 2 lakh per year to Rs 3 lakh per year. The bill has proposed to omit compensatory allowance. — PTI