Few questions like how can MPs decide their own salaries will now be put forth Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, courtesy CP Rai, a right to information (RTI) applicant, reports Chetan Chauhan.
Few questions like how can members of Parliament (MPs) decide their own salaries and why they are paid for the day when the House is adjourned without transacting business will now be put forth Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, courtesy a right to information (RTI) applicant, CP Rai.
HT Image
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
The government has also informed Rai that there would be an independent permanent mechanism for revising salaries, allowances and pension of MPs. "Details of the mechanism is being worked out," the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry officials said.
Rai wanted to know that why there is no commission of secretaries to decide salaries and allowances of MPs, similar to the one for the Central Government employees. As of now, Parliament decides on the salaries and allowances of its members.
He had also sought a reply from Lok Sabha Secretariat on why ‘no work no pay’ rule is applied for MPs for the days when the house is adjourned for the day.
Rai also wanted to know what steps the secretariat has taken to recover the amount paid to MPs for such days.
{{^htLoading}} {{/htLoading}}
{{^usCountry}}
He even quoted a letter written by the former Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi stating that there should be rule of procedure for MPs of ‘no work no allowance’.
{{/usCountry}}
{{#usCountry}}
He even quoted a letter written by the former Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi stating that there should be rule of procedure for MPs of ‘no work no allowance’.
{{/usCountry}}
"By this way there will be public opinion that when MPs don’ take allowance for not doing any work, the employees will also not go to strike in future, and if they do so then they will have to accept no work no allowance," Joshi said in the letter.
"Allowances are paid according to the provisions of Salary, Allowances and Pension of members of Parliament Act 1954," Additional Secretary in Lok Sabha Secretary SK Sharma told Rai.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
