Mysuru: Malavika Gubbivani, President of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), District Unit, has criticised the move to hike the salary of the chief minister, ministers, MLAs, MLCs, speaker, deputy speaker and the Leader of Opposition.
Speaking to mediapersons on Thursday February 24, she said “The government has been unable to pay the scholarship amount for SC and ST students which has been pending for the last one year. Outsourced employees’ wages in hostels run by the Social Welfare Department have not been paid for the last six months and the wages of several Gram Panchayat employees for the last two years.”
She further added, “Government employees have been protesting on roads demanding their salaries for several months, while the ministers and legislators have raised their own salaries and perks by 50 to 60 percent. The lawmakers who are supposed to protect the weaker sections of our society have utilised the Assembly session to serve their own self-interest.”
Do our MLAs have any moral right to receive such a high salary during this period of economic hardship? questioned Malavika Gubbivani. In
August last year, when the Delhi Assembly raised the MLAs salary to Rs. 90,000, the BJP had strongly opposed it. But now in Karnataka, the salary of MLAs, including all allowances, has been hiked to Rs. 1,45,000 per month. The legislators of Karnataka are among the top five highest-paid across the States in the country, she added.
