TS MLAs welcome salary hike decision

Hyderabad: Cutting across party lines, all the legislators on Monday unanimously welcomed the decision of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to hike their salaries.

The legislators say that though the general public would feel that they were getting undue benefit, the reality was different. According to MLA Vemula Prashanth Reddy (TRS), they have to tour constituencies three to four days a week and have to maintain offices and personal assistants both at their Constituency and in Hyderabad apart from paying their salaries.

They also have to help people from their constituencies many a times. All this involves huge expenditure and the hike in salaries would provide some relief to them.

According to Congress MLA T Rammohan Reddy, the diesel expenses alone add up to Rs 40,000 per month. “All MLAs cannot buy cars on their own and most of them prefer Innovas these days. They have to bear the interest after taking a car loan and usually vehicle has to be changed for every three years. I personally feel this is a wise decision.” State BJP spokesperson and Uppal MLA NVSS Prabhakar said it cannot be called a “salary hike” as most of it comprises of allowances.

He said the current salary is Rs 12,000 and it will be doubled as per the information that has reached him. Most of the amount will go towards office expenses, conveyance, secretaries, computer operator and such other incidentals, he said. When asked about the TRS government's claim that salary hike would help control corruption, Prabhakar said, “Yes, it will help maintain transparency in running of the office of an elected representative.”

Left party MLAs claimed that salary hike would be greatly beneficial for public representatives of Left parties, because they usually have very little means. At the same time, CPM legislator Sunnam Rajaiah and CPI MLA Ravindra Kumar expressed doubts that the ruling party might be trying to woo MLAs through salary hike.

However, ruling party MLAs differed with this view. According to Prashanth Reddy, several MLAs of TRS also have very little means.

“For instance, Koppula Eshwar is a four-time MLA and he always has a problem meeting his expenses. Nallala Odelu is a second-time MLA and his financial condition is not good. Same is the case with several first-time MLAs,” he said.

Meanwhile, Telugu Desam MLA Prakash Goud said the salary hike was good but “it could have been better if the government hiked the salaries of legislators after undertaking some people-centric measures.”