This refers to the report "Panel proposes 316% rise in salaries for Delhi MLAs" (October 7). According to the report, the speaker of the Delhi Assembly had appointed an 'expert committee' which has recommended a hike of 316 per cent in salaries for Delhi MLAs-the rise being from Rs 12,000 to Rs 50,000 per month, apart from suggesting 'suitable' upgradation in their other allowances too. The report also reveals their salary and allowances were last revised by 100 per cent in 2011 when Congress' Sheila Dikshit was in the saddle.
It is a different matter that the Delhi Congress Committee chief Ajay Maken has now termed it 'unfortunate' for a pro-poor Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to seek a 400 per cent hike for its all-powerful MLAs. Let us remember that the AAP has 67 MLAs in a 70-member house where the BJP has an insignificant three while the Congress party has none. So the reason for his complain is easy to see.
This unprecedented hike might come in handy and might facilitate a suitable rise in the pay and allowances of MPs who too are seeking the same and the government is trying to take the same technical route-of constituting a panel-for the purpose.
However, the moot question is: Who will foot the astronomically high wage bill now? How come the wishes of our political masters are so easily granted while some others have to struggle for their entire life to get comparable benefits? Are the so-called 'servants' of people more equal than others? One wonders how a political party, which claims to be pro-people, which has so bravely christened itself Aam Aadmi Party, seek such a huge financial bonanza for its MLAs in Delhi, the burden of which will fall on the hapless people.
What about the tax on it? Will this financial bonanza be exempt from income tax? What about the talk of 'rationalisation' of taxes and the well-planned phasing out of the various exemptions for the man on the street?
S. Kumar New Delhi
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard, Nehru House,
4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201
E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number
