The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Bill raising the salaries of its members to Rs. 50,000 a month from the present Rs. 16,000 and doubling the constituency and office expenses allowance to Rs. 40,000 a month.
With this, Parliament gave its approval to the Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament (Amendment) Bill, 2010, passed by the Lok Sabha earlier.
Left stages walkout
Members of the Communists Party of India (Marxist), including Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat, and D. Raja (Communist Party of India) staged a walkout protesting the manner in which the hike was being effected with MPs giving themselves a raise and the absence of an independent mechanism to take a view on it.
Mr. Yechury said the government had promised four years ago, when a similar move was undertaken, to consider having a mechanism, but it still remained to be implemented.
Debate
During the debate, many members made a similar demand and, in his reply, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal agreed it was time to set up a mechanism.
He promised to come back to the House at an appropriate time after holding discussions with political parties since there also existed an opinion that only MPs should continue to decide on the issue.
The Bill proposes to raise the daily allowance of members from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000. It seeks to enhance the pension of former MPs from Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 20,000 with effect from the constitution of the present Lok Sabha on May 18 last year.
Panel recommendation
The Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of MPs, headed by Charandas Mahant (Congress), had recommended a hike in salary from Rs. 16,000 to Rs. 80,001 — one rupee more than that of the Secretary to the Government of India.
