Bhuwneswar : In a significant development, the Odisha government initiated steps to withdraw the proposed bill for increasing the salaries of MLAs on Thursday.
The process to roll back the MLA salary hike bill began in the Odisha Legislative Assembly. The Assembly Secretary has formally communicated with all members of the House regarding the move through a letter.
According to official sources, a notice in this regard has been received from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Mahaling. The minister has expressed an intent to withdraw the bill on the salary increment of legislators.
The development indicates a shift in the State government’s stance on the proposed pay hike, though detailed reasons behind the decision are yet to be officially outlined.
“Withdrawing it (the Bill) is a formality. Because when the State government had already decided that they would not implement the bill, merely sitting idle in that case would not suffice for the bill. It is the property of the House; the House had passed it. So, withdrawing it is necessary. And how will they withdraw it? They will withdraw it only with the House’s approval. That’s what they have done. It is just a statutory requirement. So that has been followed. I mean, it is going to be followed,” Kendrapara BJD MLA Ganeswar Behera said.
“It was not supposed to be implemented. The government had announced that it would not implement the bill. Since it wasn’t supposed to be implemented, its withdrawal was inevitable. That’s what is going to happen. There is nothing new in this. This is a formality, an unavoidable formality,” the BJD legislator stated.
Worth mentioning, the Legislative Assembly had earlier approved a substantial hike in the salaries and allowances of sitting and former MLAs, marking one of the most dramatic revisions in recent years.
On the last day of the Assembly Session in December last year, the House had unanimously cleared a proposal concerning the salaries, allowances and pensions of MLAs, former MLAs, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. As per the revised structure, the salary of an MLA was to rise from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh, signalling a nearly three-and-a-half-fold increase.
This revision formalised a demand that had existed since 2007 during the BJD government. The present Mohan Majhi government had just endorsed it, giving legislators across party lines a significant financial boost. Notably, both the ruling side and the opposition had welcomed the Bill, displaying rare unanimity during its introduction.
Following a backlash from people across the State, the BJP Legislature Party had requested the Chief Minister to reconsider the decision. The matter is now expected to be taken up again in the current session for the withdrawal of the bill.
