Lawmakers Here Just Gave Themselves a Massive Salary Hike

Hyderabad: Telangana lawmakers are set to become the country's highest paid after giving themselves a fat salary hike at a time the state has been in the news for farmer suicides.

Lawmakers in India's newest state today unanimously cleared a proposal that will bump up their salaries from Rs 95,000 to 2.5 lakh, at a cost of Rs 42 crore a year to the government. Ministers' salaries will increase from Rs 2.4 lakh to 4 lakh.

The Telangana Payment of Salaries and Pension Removal of Disqualifications (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the assembly on Monday and passed today.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, whose salary is likely to increase from Rs 2.4 lakh to Rs 4.2 lakh, explained in the house that legislators have to attend a number of official meetings, take care of visitors and tour their constituencies.

The media should understand the situation, he appealed.

The salary hike has mostly meant bad press for the government. Over 2,100 farmer suicides have been reported in Telangana since it was born in May 2014; only around 400 families have been compensated.

With the 160 per cent hike, Telangana lawmakers will outdo their counterparts in Delhi, who are drawing Rs 2.10 lakh a month after clearing a similar bill last year.

Congress lawmaker G Chinna Reddy said the package, including constituency allowance and other perks, will come to around Rs 2.80 lakh a month.

The lawmakers had last month complained to the chief minister that their salary was "grossly inadequate", given "political and non-political expenses" that include travel, fuel, staff, telephone charges and family spending.

Delhi lawmakers are currently the highest paid in the country after the Aam Aadmi Party-dominated state assembly cleared the proposal in December.

Confronting a backlash on social media, AAP leader and Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia defended the raise saying it would help ensure a corruption-free environment among lawmakers.