MPs complain of financial stress, seek better salaries

NEW DELHI: Protesting that one rotten apple in a basket gives a bad odour to the entire lot, the MPs on Monday complained of financial stress and asked for better salaries to cope with the demand of their work.

Participating in a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on a bill that proposed a sharp hike in the salaries of the President and Rajya Sabha chairman , members pointed out that a ���bad impression��� had been created about their financial power while actually most of them struggled to meet the many needs of the constituency.

The bill raised the Rajya Sabha chairman���s salary to Rs 125,000 in view of the hefty hikes senior government officials had got after the sixth pay commission. The President���s enhanced salary would be Rs 3 lakh.

Initiating the discussion, S S Ahluwalia (BJP) pointed out that while an MP got Rs 16,000 as salary, his allowance of Rs 14,000 for hiring a computer literate secretary was inadequate.

���For that amount hiring a computer knowing person is not possible,��� he said. He claimed that in some of the states, even the MLAs were paid better salaries than MPs.

Sudershan Nachiappan (Congress) said that for a committed MP his salary and allowances were very low.