Congress slams salary hike for TS legislators

New Delhi: Calling it an unacceptable measure, the Congress party has come down heavily on the decision of the Telangana State government to effect a more than hundred per cent increase in the salaries and allowance of the MLAs, and MLCs in the State.

“This is a reprehensible practice for the legislators to increase their own income. At a time when the State is yet to settle down, and the basic people’s issues have to be sorted out. But the legislators have gone ahead and increased their own wages,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

The hike in salary for legislators came ostensibly as the legislators submitted to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao that they had to spend large amounts of money to remain in contact with the people in their respective constituencies.

But the Rs 2 lakh per month salary for the State legislators made their earnings more than the members of Parliament, who have to cover seven to eight times the size of a legislator’s constituency, he said.

Moreover, the hike had been introduced at a time when the State had been pressing for more resources from the Centre and claiming that was hard-pressed to find the wherewithal for developmental projects.

The annual burden on account of the salary of the legislators is now estimated at Rs.40 crore approximately, he said.