During the third day of the Monsoon Session, Samajwadi Party MP Naresh Agarwal on Wednesday demanded a pay hike for the members of Parliament, citing that the state MLAs are paid more than them.
"We are not begging. State MLAs get more salary than us. Why can't MPs ask for salary hikes if judges can? We have demanded what we deserve under the 7th Pay Commission," Agarwal told ANI.
He added that their salaries are lesser than their secretaries.
"We want an answer from the Government," he asserted.
Tamil Nadu MLAs have given themselves a generous hike of Rs. 50,000, taking their monthly salaries to Rs. 1.05 lakh.
Apart from the salary hike, the pension of the MLAs has gone up from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 20,000, while the local area development fund to develop the respective constituencies was increased from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 2.6 crore.
Meanwhile, the members of the Opposition belonging to the Congress, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Left, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha after the House met at 12 noon after the first adjournment.