 "Tamil Nadu Assembly hikes MLA salaries by 100%, ignores farmers: Draws flak from BJP while DMK remains mum")
At a time when Tamil Nadu is facing an agrarian crisis, the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday decided to give the state legislators an almost 100 percent pay hike, News18 reported. According to the report, the monthly salaries of the 234 MLAs in the state Assembly was doubled from Rs 55,000 to Rs 1,05,000. The monthly pensions of the legislators were hiked to Rs 20,000.
Tamil Nadu MLAs' salary doubled - MLAs to get a salary of ₹1.05 L now; Pension increased to ₹20K, Constituency fund increased to ₹2.6 crores pic.twitter.com/YGeIrOKFyy
— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 19, 2017
Times Now reported that the the Assembly also increased the phone bill allowance from Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000. The report added that there was a Rs 50 lakh addition to the MLA constituency fund, which now stood at Rs Rs 2.5 crores. The latest development came at a time when Tamil Nadu farmers resumed their protest for a loan waiver at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday. Reacting to the pay hike, Ayyakannu, the leader of the protesting Tamil farmers, told CNN-News18, “We are abandoned by our leaders. We demand at least decent prices for our produce.” The Tamil Nadu BJP slammed the ruling E Palaniswamy government for the salary hike, pointing out the poor finances of the state treasury.
No industrial growth, state of revenue is very bad; This salary hike is disgusting: Narayanan Thirupathy, Spokesperson BJP TN to CNN-News18
— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 19, 2017
DMK should oppose this salary hike; There is no need for people to get this kind of salary hike in Tamil Nadu: Narayanan Thirupathy, BJP TN
— News18 (@CNNnews18) July 19, 2017
“There is no industrial growth, while the state of revenue is very bad. This salary hike is disgusting,” Narayanan Thirupathy, spokesperson of the state BJP, told CNN-News18. The saffron party also demanded that the principal Opposition party DMK oppose the pay hike. Meanwhile, similar demand was made by Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agarwal in Rajya Sabha, who claimed that parliamentarians were paid less than their secretaries.
