Disgruntled over the approved 400 per cent pay hike for MLAs and ministers in the national capital, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Pankaj Pushkar on Friday rebelled against the decision, saying that ‘inflation’ was for everyone.
“This steep hike in the salary of the legislator sends a wrong signal to the people in the society. If there is inflation, it is for everybody and if at all a higher salary is required then it should be for everybody,” says Pushkar.
“As a responsible legislative assembly we need to understand that we are responsible for people first,” he added.
Pushkar also said that the worst part of it was that the party brought a ‘whip’ on an issue like salary hike.
“This whip pressurises the legislators to vote in favor of the bill. The whip shouldn’t have been imposed on such an issue and a discussion should have been done,” he said.
“This shows how scared this government is about its internal resentment within the party,” he added.
Pushkar further pointed out that now an AAP MLA was receiving a salary of 53,000 rupees, while earlier most of them were working on ‘donations’ collected from people.
“So what is the sudden change that we aren’t being able to manage with the salary of 53,000?” he added.
The Delhi Assembly had yesterday approved a 400 per cent pay hike for MLAs and ministers, by passing the Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Government of NCT of Delhi (Salaries, Allowances, Pension) Amendment Bill 2015.
The House accepted the recommendations made by an independent committee of three experts.
