‘Let independent pay panel decide MPs’ salary,’ says former speaker Somnath Chatterjee

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Another proposal seeks to increase the daily allowance for attending the House during Parliament sessions from

Rs 2,000 to Rs 4000. There is a suggestion for extending health-care benefits to families of MPs.

The salaries were last revised in 2010. If the proposed hike is put in place this year, the next revision will be carried out after another five years.

“I hold the view that MPs should not be deciding their own salaries because it sullies their image,” Chatterjee said, adding that there should be an independent mechanism to do so.

Chatterjee told The Indian Express that “after I became Lok Sabha Speaker, I had called a meeting of all parties on the issue and they agreed with my proposal that there should be a separate pay commission for MPs. Thereafter, I sent a note to the then PM (Manmohan Singh) accordingly saying that let it be done in a manner that nobody can raise a question about the MPs’ role in it.”

The then PM, according to him, praised the proposal and said that “the entire arrangement needs being institutionalised.” However, Chatterjee said, ultimately, the Cabinet did not agree to his suggestion. “Obviously, they (members of the Cabinet) did not want to annoy the MPs,” he said.