Bhubaneswar: The process to withdraw the proposed bill to increase legislators’ salaries has been initiated, with the Assembly Secretariat sending letters to all members of the House in this regard.
The communication follows a notice from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling, who requested the bill’s withdrawal, officials said.
Also Read : Odisha Assembly may reconsider MLAs’ salary hike bill
Introduced last year, the bill proposed a significant hike in salaries and allowances for the Speaker, Chief Minister, ministers, and MLAs. If passed, MLAs would have received about Rs 3.45 lakh per month, including allowances. The Chief Minister’s salary and allowances would have been around Rs 3.74 lakh, while Cabinet and state ministers were to receive nearly Rs 3.60 lakh.
It was CPI(M)’s lone member, Laxman Munda, who first opposed the MLAs salary hike. Subsequently, BJD president Naveen Patnaik also announced to forgo the enhanced salary, leading to widespread outrage among the public.
Though all the parties supported passing of the bills in the House, later keeping in view the public outrage, legislature parties of all the parties wrote to the chief minister to review the salary hike of lawmakers “to respect public sentiment”.