Bowing to persistent pressure from MPs, the Union Cabinet today decided to hike their allowances and ensured a smooth passage for the Civil Libaility for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010.
Under the proposed hike, MPs will get '10,000 more – '5,000 each as constituency allowance and office expenses allowance – in addition to the '50,000 salary per month, up from '16,000.
Sources in government told Business Standard that some ministers had asked opposition leaders, including Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav, to raise the issue in Parliament and force the govenrment to review its decision.
The move followed exetensive discussions on Saturday between the government and the MPs. A meeting of the Cabinet had discussed a salary hike but had not taken a decision, leaving the PM to take a call on the matter.
Political parties have reacted differently to the move. While the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has welcomed it, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has opposed it. The BJP has said it is against a ‘trade union-like approach’ to the issue.
BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said a hike in the emoluments was necessary but the government should evolve an index-based or some other mechanism to decide the quantum and timing of hike and MPs should not be making recommendations themselves to hike their salaries.
She said party MPs had left it to the system and had made no demands for an increase. “The issue has several nuances. The MPs are not feeling overjoyed. They are uneasy that they have to clear the hike of their own salary.”
NCP spokesman D P Tripathi welcomed the move, saying “it was long overdue”. “The MPs need basic facilities. Criticising the hike is not correct.”
Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said the government had decided on a hike after consultations and the party supported the decision. “There were demands for a hike based on the recommendations of a Parliamentary Committee. The government has found a middle road.”
Educational Tribunals Bill gets nod
The Union Cabinet today approved the Educational Tribunals Bill, which will facilitate setting up tribunals at the national and state levels to settle disputes related to educational institutions at various stages.
The Bill, which seeks to set up a two-tier structure of tribunals at the national and state levels, proposes to set up regulatory bodies to monitor and conduct accreditation of higher educational institutes in a transparent manner.
Moreover, the Cabinet also rejected recommendations of a 10-member Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Oscar Fernandes on the Bill that . the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry for hurriedly preparing the legislation without holding adequate consultations with the stakeholders.
The committee found that a segment of the stakeholders like the private institutes, Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India and central educational institutes had not been consulted at all. However, the HRD ministry is of the view that stakeholders like the state governments were consulted and there was no adverse comment from any of them.
At present, there are 504 university-level institutes and 25,951 colleges across the country with an enrolment of 13.6 million students. The annual intake in these institutes is about 1.4 million. Any kind of dispute arising in any of these institutes will be adjudicated by the proposed tribunals at the Centre and the state levels, the Bill says.
It also seeks to set up a two-tier structure of educational tribunals at the national and state levels to adjudicate on the entire gamut of disputes that arise in the higher education system, sources say.
The state tribunals will adjudicate matters concerning teachers, employees and students of institutions, while the national tribunal would deal with all matters concerning regulatory bodies in higher education and also matters involving institutes located in two or more states.
The Bill also provides for imprisonment up to three years or fine of '10 lakh or both to those who fails to comply with the orders of the state or the national educational tribunals.
