Karnataka Congress MLA Dr Anjali Nimbalkar, on Wednesday, asked the state government to give better facilities to citizens instead of hiking the salaries of ministers and legislators. Her reaction came after the government, on Tuesday, passed two bills, increasing salaries and allowances of the chief minister, ministers and legislators.
The bills—The Karnataka Ministers Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and The Karnataka Legislature Salaries, Pensions and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2022—were passed claiming that these were long pending, and and that there has been a considerable increase in cost of living.
Nimbalkar took to Twitter to say the money should be used for helping the poor to pay for their “Covdi bills.”
“We don’t want this. Pay the Covid bills of common man first, give them shelters.. Give better infrastructure, jobs,transport, better life for a person to survive in this pandemic,” Nimbalkar wrote.
The bill on ministers' salaries and allowances proposes to increase the salary of the chief minister from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 per month, salary of ministers from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000, and the allowance for both will be increased from Rs three lakh to Rs 4.50 lakh per annum.
The bill on legislature salaries, pensions and allowances, proposes to increase the monthly salary of the legislative assembly speaker and legislative council chairperson from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000, while the monthly salary of the leaders of the opposition has been increased from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000.
It also proposes to enhance the salary of MLAs and MLCs from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 per month.