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After backlash, BJD also asks CM to reconsider huge hike in Odisha MLA salaries
Last week, the Odisha assembly passed four separate bills that increased the monthly emoluments of MLAs from ₹1.11 lakh to ₹3.45 lakh
BHUBANESWAR: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) lawmakers on Friday asked chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi to reconsider the controversial 211% hike in MLAs’ salaries and allowances cleared by the assembly earlier this month.
“Keeping in view the popular sentiments over the proposed hike in the salaries and allowances of MLAs, the BJD requests the chief minister to reconsider it,” Opposition chief whip Pramila Mallik told reporters on Friday, acknowledging that the party previously supported the four bills but had deferred to popular sentiment.
Last week, the assembly passed four separate bills that increased the monthly emoluments of MLAs from ₹1.11 lakh to ₹3.45 lakh, those of CMs from ₹98,000 to ₹3.74 lakh, of ministers from ₹97,000 to ₹3.58 lakh and speakers from ₹97,500 to ₹3.68 lakh, effective retrospectively from June 2024.
The pay hike positioned Odisha ahead of even traditionally high-paying states such as Telangana, where MLAs earn around ₹2.50 lakh monthly. In Delhi and Kerala, legislator salaries remain at ₹90,000 and ₹70,000, respectively.
Not a single MLA opposed the pay hike during the discussion on the Bill on December 9.
On December 13, leader of opposition and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to Majhi to ask that his enhanced salary be retained by the government. “I would like to request you to utilise the same for the welfare of poor people of our state,” Patnaik said in his letter.
At the time, he was criticised by Congress and BJP leaders, who called it “political grandstanding”.
But a wave of criticism over the pay hike led the BJP leadership to convey its displeasure over the move. On Thursday, ruling BJP lawmakers approached the chief minister to reconsider the hike that has made the state’s lawmakers the highest-paid in the country.
“The BJP MLAs, at a meeting with the chief minister here today, urged him to reconsider the proposed hike in the salaries and allowances of the lawmakers. They have written a letter requesting the CM to reconsider the move, respecting the public opinion,” Odisha parliamentary affairs minister Mukesh Mahaling told reporters on Thursday.
