The President’s pay has been hiked to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1.5 lakh per month. As the first citizen, virtually everything is for free for the President. Also, it being a largely nominal post, such as steep salary hike is not in keeping with the straitened circumstances of the government.
The President, post-retirement, will be allotted a government bungalow. In the coming parliamentary session, MPs will get a 100 per cent salary rise.
Most of the time, Parliament remains dysfunctional as the Opposition tends to stall it for frivolous reasons. Many legislators are even absent. Latching on to the bandwagon, legislators from state assemblies have also enhanced their salaries manifold.
Some have been found watching porn during sessions while others indulge in forty winks. When every new government is formed the lawmakers invariably go on foreign jaunts on some excuse or the other. How and who is to control this lavish expenditure on them?
Shanmugam Mudaliar, Pune
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