PIL challenging MLAs pay hike dismissed

By Gopal Ethiraj, Chennai

CHENNAI, 31 August (asiantribune.com): A petition challenging the order of the government to hike salary and decision to allot land for constructing house for MLAs has been dismissed by the Madras High Court today.

When the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed the social activist ‘Traffic’ K R Ramaswamy came up for hearing before the First Bench of Chief Justice H L Gokhale and Justice D Murugesan, the Government Pleader (GP) Raja Kalifulla submitted, the salary hike to the MLAs was announced by the government in the State Assembly.

And on the government has not yet taken any decision to allot any piece of land to MLAs; the government has closed the proposal of allotting lands to them, the GP informed the court.

Dismissing the petition, the Bench recorded the statement of the GP and said, the MLAs’ salary increase was within the permissible limit.

In his petition, ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy, had earlier submitted that the hike in the salary of MLAs announced by the Finance Minister was unwarranted.
He said legislators were expected to serve the people, recalling that in the distant past only an honorarium was paid to MLAs when they attended Assembly sessions. There was no fixed monthly salary.

He also submitted that at present MLAs were given free accommodation with modern facilities. It was not necessary to allot free land or land at a concessional price in the city, which was already facing acute shortage of space.

When several hut-dwellers were not able to get [better] accommodation, it was not fair to give additional accommodation to MLAs, most of whom owned houses in their constituencies and also in the city. He had sent a fax message to the authorities, the Finance Minister and the Chief Minister.