Accepting higher pay would not be fair on teachers: MLC

MUMBAI: Four members of Legislative Council (MLCs) and one MLA turned down the proposed hike in salaries for legislators, following an uproar by unaided schools

MUMBAI: Four members of Legislative Council (MLCs) and one MLA turned down the proposed hike in salaries for legislators, following an uproar by unaided schools and teachers who have been agitating for a hike in pay and grants. The MLCs wrote to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday refusing to accept the raise until the government took care of the issue.

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The state lawmakers passed a bill in the Legislative Assembly on Friday raising their own salary with immediate effect. According to the bill, MLAs and MLCs will now draw salaries between Rs1.60 lakh and Rs1.70 lakh every month — a substantial increase from the Rs75, 000 that they drew till date. Ministers will earn between Rs1.80 lakh to Rs2 lakh as against the Rs 57, 000 that they earn now.

MLCs from the teaching constituency in Mumbai and Konkan — Kapil Patil and Ramnath Mote — said that they will not accept the hike unless the school grants and teachers’ salaries that are pending are paid off. The move comes after they drew flak from unaided schools and teachers who are yet to receive the aid that the cabinet sanctioned in June.

“I am not against any hike for lawmakers; it was long overdue. But thousands of teachers are working without pay for the last 10 to 15 years,” said Mote. “It will be disloyalty if I draw a salary of Rs 1.5 lakh when the teachers I represent are starving.”

After November 2005, some teachers did not receive pension either. “Accepting a salary hike and an increase in pension isn’t fair when so many teachers are being denied theirs,” said Patil, who was the first to reject the hike.

But principals questioned why the MLCs did not raise the teachers issue in the Assembly.

“Since elections for Konkan are close by, we are not surprised that the MLCs are giving up the hike,” said Prashant Redij, spokesperson of the association.