Experts' panel to decide on lawmakers' pay hike

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has requested the Delhi assembly speaker to form an expert panel for deciding on the revision of salaries and allowances of the state's lawmakers, an official statement said on Thursday.

In the statement, the Committee on Salary and Allowances of the Delhi assembly said, "The committee unanimously concluded that though the prevailing salary and allowances in Delhi are highly inadequate to meet the basic minimum requirements of an honest and performing legislator in discharging his/her duties, it will not be appropriate on the part of the MLAs to decide on the revision in their pay structure on their own."

It requested Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goyal to constitute a committee of people with expertise in deciding salary structures and thorough understanding of the functioning of a lawmaker, the statement said.

"This is the first-of-its-kind move by any legislative body in the country where elected representatives voluntarily leave it to an expert panel to decide on revision of their pay and allowances though they are constitutionally entitled to decide the pay revision for themselves," the statement said.

The recommendations of the expert committee will be sent to the committee on salary and allowances headed by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Vishesh Ravi. The final views will be forwarded to the state government for its consideration, it added.

Currently, a lawmaker in Delhi receives nearly Rs.82,000 every month in salaries and allowances.