Jammu, March 28 (Scoop News) – Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Monday flagged the necessity of a mechanism for enhancing the salaries of legislators under a set formula.
“There is a need for consensus to work out a procedure for addressing the issue of salary enhancement to the legislators taking all aspects into consideration and involving expert opinion in the process”, he said that despite justified grounds for raising the salaries of legislators it is difficult for the House to explain its urgency to the people, as such, there is a need of a device to take care of this aspect in future.
“In my opinion we should have a procedure in place like that of pay commissions for government employees. There should be a formula and a time frame where under the matter of enhancement of salaries will be settled in a transparent and befitting manner taking experts on board for opinion”, he emphasized.
Intervening in the discussion on the Bill tabled in the Legislative Assembly by the Law Minister for enhancing the salaries of legislators and ministers, Omar Abdullah said that Government kept the issue pending for a long time with the purpose to first attend the demands of Government employees for implementation of 6th Pay Commission and finalizing the road map for the payment of the arrears to them. “We have framed a road map for providing 50 percent arrears to the Government employees while the payment procedure for another 50 percent arrears is being worked out”, he added.
“For the constant upward trend in price index and the pressing demand for enhancing the salaries of the legislators Government introduced a Bill to accommodate the demands at least moderately, if not to the full extend”, he said and added that the demand of the House for fixing the salary of a legislator at the rate of Rs. One lakh per month could not be accommodated fully for lack of resources.
Omar Abdullah said that there is tremendous pressure on the State’s exchequer on account of huge salary bill of Government employees. “While the Salary Bill 2001-2002 was of the order of about Rs. 3591 crores it jumped to Rs. 7896 crores in 2008-2009 and is touching Rs. 14740 crores at present. This itself explains the tremendous pressure Government has to bear on this count”, he added.
The House later passed the Bill with certain amendments unanimously.