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The Gujarat Congress lawmakers threatened to bring up a no-confidence motion against the Vijay Rupani government, took out a “bicycle rally” to the Vidhan Sabha to protest against rising prices of petroleum products and raised the issue of suicide by five farmers in the Saurashtra region.
But just a few minutes later, they joined hands with BJP MLAs and unanimously passed a Bill enhancing their salaries and perquisites by nearly 65% on the last day of the two-day monsoon session of the House on Wednesday.
None of the 182 MLAs present in the House opposed the bill. The BJP government also amended rules for issuing “health permits” for liquor consumers making procurement of liquor stringent in the state where prohibition policy has been in force for decades.
Retrospective effect hike
The Gujarat MLAs’ monthly pay has been raised from ₹70,727 to ₹1,16,316 and that of the Ministers from ₹87,000 to ₹1.32 lakh. The rise has become effective from December 22, 2017, from when the beneficiaries will get arrears. The MLAs’ daily allowance has also been raised from ₹200 to ₹1,000 while the Leader of the Opposition’s “correspondence expenses” has been increased 10 times, from ₹1,000 to ₹10,000 per month. Together, these monthly increment would burden the exchequer with an additional ₹16.53 crore per annum.
The pay hike bill was not on the House agenda for Wednesday as drafted by its Business Advisory Committee. The BJP government tabled it and the Congress supported it minutes after its MLAs vociferously raised other issues.
Congress MLA Veerji Thummar told reporters that the lawmakers have to maintain their “status” in public. He said this hike was “meager” while others cited examples of the MLAs in a “small state” like Uttarakhand with a salary of ₹2.91 lakh per month, followed by Jharkhand (₹2.25 lakh), Maharashtra (₹2.13 lakh), Delhi (₹1.34 lakh and Rajasthan (₹1.30 lakh).
Outside the Assembly, another Congress MLA, Pratap Dudhat, announced that he would not accept the hike until farmers got their dues, but did so after Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel stated that the BJP would make an announcement on benefits fior farmers n a couple of days.
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