Reading through some newspapers letters to the editor, I could see a lot of generally well meaning middle class folks protesting against the salary hikes the elected representatives gave themselves.
MPs to get salary hike: Bill introduced
<quote>
The Bill sought to increase slaries of MPs from Rs 12,000 to Rs 16,000 besides raising the daily allowance to Rs 1,000 from Rs 500, Dasmunsi said.
</quote>
Yes many in middle class of India actually believe that todays politicians in India are all crooks and don't deserve to be paid a single naya paisa as salary not to mention the meager long overdue hike they gave themselves. But the current breed of politicians is the effect of low salaries we have in effect. It is well known IT industry in India has filched the best talent due to decent salaries it pays. Right now only the corrupt politician can survive the expenses of politicking and being out of office without a decent salary package. Not to forget we get what we pay for.
In my not so humble opinion they pay themselves ridiculously low salaries. Since the President of the republic is supposed to have highest salary in this whole hierarchy here is what I would propose as salaries (Tax-Free).
Annual Salaries
1. President of India: 1 Crore(10Million Rupees)
2. MP( Member of Parliament): 50 L (5 Million Rupees)
3. MLA(Member of Legislative Assembly):24L (2.4 Million Rupees)
4. Municipal Corporaters(Metros): 12L (1.2 Million Rupees)
5. Municipal Corporaters(2nd rung towns): 6L (600,000 Rupees)
6. Municipal Corporaters(small towns): 3L (300,000 Rupees)
7. Village Panchayat Members: 1.5L (150,000 Rupees)
Pension for next 5 years after they are no longer elected representatives:
1. MP( Member of Parliament): 25 L (2.5 Million Rupees)
2. MLA(Member of Legislative Assembly):12L (1.2 Million Rupees)
3. Municipal Corporaters(Metros): 6L (600,000 Rupees)
4. Municipal Corporaters(2nd rung towns): 3L (300,000 Rupees)
5. Municipal Corporaters(small towns): 2L (200,000 Rupees)
6. Village Panchayat Members: 1L (100,000 Rupees)
An additional 25% performance bonus based on ratings provided by the electors in a representatives constituency might just provide sufficient incentive to perform on measurable parameters.
These kind of salaries might even induce politicians to shun small amounts of money as bribes.
Apart from this state funding of elections can also go a long way in reducing corruption.
Proposed Funding for elections can be made available in the form of reimbursement of actual expenses of top 3 candidates to upper limit of:-
1. Parliament Elections: 50L(5Million Rupees)
2. State Legislatures: 15L (1.5 Million Rupees)
3. Municipal Elections(Metro): 5L ( 500,000 Rupees)
4. Municipal Election(2nd rung towns): 2L (200,000 Rupees)
5. Municipal Election(Small towns): 1L (100,000 Rupees)
6. Village Panchayat Elections: 25K (25000 Rupees)
and for next 2 candidates:-
1. Parliament Elections: 10L (1Million Rupees)
2. State Legislatures: 3L (300,000 Rupees)
3. Municipal Elections(Metro): 2L (200,000 Rupees)
4. Municipal Election(2nd rung towns): 50K(50000 Rupees)
An environment where representatives focus on governance and don't have to worry about arranging funds for the next election and don't have to worry about living in penury(that would actually be the case if they were honest ) after they are out of elected office might actually result in students aspiring for a political career as a respectable and honourable career option.
However bad our politicians are they are accountable to us even today, as opposed to the bureaucrats who while being relatively honest are generally slothful and inefficient and standing in the way our progress.
Salary Of Elected Representatives
As is the case of all professionals the elected representatives have a job to perform and his remuneration has to be linked to prformance. There has to be a basic salary and ammenities but the major part should come as result of certain Key Performances. Let the representatives earn thier money.
Pay them but judge the performance first
What I do not understand is why they need fleet vehicles and gang of body guards and group of people (chamchaa) when they move about? are they afraid of their action or service or are they trying to say society is unsafe for them? what about citizens then? and what about misuse of resources which could have better used for guarding the society and the country
If I want to be a doctor and say work in the hospital I would need to proper qualifications and experience and my salary or fees would be in accordance with my better record of past performances no support from my friends will ever work for me
Are MP and MLA exempt from qualifications? political party will put any donkey on the board if they can bring MORE VOTES pay them plus or minus according to their accountability and performance
The figures mentioned by you
The figures mentioned by you are no where near the amount they get from the scams..so even if you are gonna pay them this, they will end up eating tax payer's money.. and that's because its a dirty game where all of them are playing against the general public. Also, you have just considered their basic sals and not taken into account the miscellaneous benefits they get in their day to day lives..Comparing these things with other civil servants shall be a good idea too. And I cant see the corruption going low after their hikes.. Infact, corruption is on its high ... Salary hike might be right, but they need to get right accordingly.
BTW, the general impression of politics amongst youth is not a low-paid salary job, but it is a dirty job.. Today's youth want a more of white collar job where he deals with good people and not these donkeys. No one wants to get their hands dirty. Its a problem of survival of innocent people in that culture.
Ever wondered why the game is dirty
If you are supposed to run your household and electioneering expenses honestly from the pittance paid officially you are forced to play the dirty games. For 'us' & 'them' to become 'we', us need to get down and dirty to clean the system from within. The misc. benefits you mention are not convertible to cash.
Let careerists aspire to be politicians rather than the crooks we have today. I much prefer the former to latter.
Do 'they' really need thousand of crores to run the household ?
Yes, 'we' should get down and dirty to clean the system.. but the question here is who will get dirty first. There are very few who takes initiative and do such things. Even if someone tries to, too many political hurdles break them down, apart from own family pressures. Otherwise, where did the political parties like Youth for Equality, and miscellaneous other individual political candidates (read - passout from IITs/RECs ) that you read about in newspapers go?
Most of the people are followers and workers. Only few can take initiative, and fewer of them can take it to near completion. Thats why you all of India being geared up by a leader like Anna.. Its a common man's way of fighting against the system.
Misc benefits are tangible resources. Conversion to cash is not needed. That saves you a lot of cash.. Imagine you given a company house to stay in, saving you all monthly rents, telephone connections, no tolls, car travels ( They might misuse the transport for own purpose - that is not an issue right now.. Issue is when the amount they misuse crosses thousands of crores....
My point is , if low salary is the only reason they get into this, then the level of corruption would not have been this high.
It is our fault.we should contest,not just voting
No use of criticizing the present politicians.It is not their fault.It is our fault.as per the above threads we all know that we are better qualified than the present politicians.But we feel insult to contest and just standing in queue like sheep and voting.After all ten thousand rupees the nomination fee to contest the elections.we lakhs of voters standing in queue and voting for one unworthy candidate among three unworthy, let us form as a group in each constituency and let us sacrifice one tea per day at the cost of 4 rupees thus save ten thousand rupees each and
read
http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/ElectoralLaws/HandBooks/Handbook_for_Candidates.pdf
in each constituency let us contest as thousands of independent candidates,no question of withdrawing ,thus the ballet paper would be of a 50 pages news paper size, with thousands of candidates. then the trading political parties, though they paid the money to innocent voters,they are unable to turn the particular page, so the will vote some where, thus 300 people will be chosen with highest number of votes, may be 500 each votes.among them, there will be lottery.one of us will be elected as MP.Let us sit on the ground,get our own lunch dinner box from home and let us discuss the parliament on the lawns of the subject in the right place,suppose we have to discuss about a dam or river,we can conduct the parliament only right in the project area, like human beings we will eat just normal food,not we eat crores of rupees and we never eat the time.let us conduct the assemblies and parliament for 365 days,24 hours.Thus India will become a mighty country.just thousands of people who can afford ten thousand rupees as deposit money once in their life time for the sake of the country.Since we are not contesting unworthy candidates occupying and earning the money which they invested.Let us contest and get ready with ten thousand rupees each.This is another kind of freedom fight in India.let us do it.its easy and simple.just if we can sacrifice a tea per day.just ten thousand rupees once in our life time for the sake our next generations kith and kin.Otherwise no use of writing about the salaries of the politicians.jai Hind.Sare Jahase Achcha Hindu Sita Hamara
MPs salary hike
If MPs are not interested to work with the old salary quit the MP post and go away ...Nobody ask you to work (so atlast politicians shows their color...they are not interested to work for the people who elected them and not for the nation and their )..(Or)OK you can increase your salary but you must use Government hospital for treatment and Government Schools for education and pay the tax..and giver your monthly report what you have done for the country and for the people..
mps' salary
an interesting way of looking at mps' pay and perks. But sir, are they going to behave and be honest if you give them a crore? i dunno.
I think if MP's are public
I think if MP's are public servants, other Government employees like Military, Railways and all government workers deserve a tax-free income and raise in the salary. Will that be ok Sir? If that is ok, then we're ok with your proposal also.
If a common man can contribute to the Road, Railways, irrigation etc with the tax he pays, my question is why not politicians also contribute by paying taxes?
Are u not a citizen of india? If you're a true indian citizen, you should have the motives to pay taxes like all other common citizens.
Also I believe if someone deserves a tax free benefit, that should be military personnel's or NSG's who give life for the mother country. If you're also of same job category, then tax free income is liable.
Thank you sir, My 2 words ends here.
wat abt cmmn people?? Dese
wat abt cmmn people?? Dese politicians only think abt themslves. . . .dey shld explain to us d need of increment in dere salaries. . in todays Indian economy d luxuries n necessities r sellin at same price. . m requestin to all Indians pls do not vote to ny leader in d comin elections. .
Honorarium
MP's are not employees to earn 'salary'. They are public servants elected by voters, committed to serve them.
In my opinion they should not be given the kind of salary and perks they get now or what they proposed to take out of the treasury.
At the most they could be given an honorarium, just enough for their living. And as far as their expenses are concerned they could be reimbursed on actual basis after proper audit. They should be eligible for reimbursement of any expense met while serving the constituency.
If the present MPs find it too hard to bear, I am sure there would be other people willing to serve the people on the above conditions.
But then they won't probably members of the corporate political companies amassing wealth, year after year, election after election.
Good subject
Hello everyone. from the past month, i am just thinking to enter politics and become an MLA and only moto is to serve people. Running an NGO i am not able to serve the needy as the way i wanted. Everyone says not to join politics as they specify that running an NGO you are atleast doing something but joining politics you can do nothing. But if politics is really nothing more than corruption who is going to change it. is it not we who have the responsiblitiy. We youth can only do anything to change the present situation. we all have to come forward and atleast try to do something.
Raising salaries to the present leaders is not a solution aganist corruption. Today corruption is in every corner of the society from chaprasi to PM. So we youth have to make a mind to boldly say no to corruption. even a rupee of bribe to any one. Transformation takes time, even a ceiling fan takes time to gain speed after switching on but some one has to switch on and why not we.
I want to join politics and may be by gods grace i will succeed.
Lets change our world.
Keep Smiling
Sridhar Yerramill
i totally agree with the
i totally agree with the writer we need to pay our highly if we are to reduce corruption and attract smart talent. in current salaries why would a bright young entrepreneurial person would join parliament if we pay him/her peanuts.Mps don't sit free they work more than average person. its very easy for us to say it public service without realizing the work involved . i am not saying raising salary will reduce corruption to zero but it will decrease and will attract young motivated individuals.
wanna b politician
i think youth wants go in politics but nobody support for it and you do not know that
they will start from where for bcome a politician i also wants to b an politician but hw it is possible plz suggest any budyy
The first thing we need to
The first thing we need to consider when measuring salaries is equity and I am sorry, I don't see too much equity in this case. Huge salaries to politician won't keep them away from corruption and you know it. They'll want more and more power. Also these salaries can be motivating for attracting new smart young politicians but we forget about the rest, a country doesn't need only good politicians, a country needs well motivated people overall.
MPs Salary
This is the first intelligent article I have seen in a while. I totally agree people need to rise above their pettiness of envying the MPs legitimate salary hikes. The only way to attract talent in government is to hike the salaries (I wd add also attack the criminalisation in political grassroots) and make election funding as clear as you have suggested. This will go a long way in also removing corruption.
Serious Concern !!! :)
the idea proposed above or below ...
I do have "NO OBJECTION" as a citizen of INDIA....
I agree that talented individuals will be interested in Politics,but one cant IGNORE the disadvantages of corruption,misutilisation of money.
I wud say...rather than money..We should Make a criteria of QUALIFICATION for a POLITICIAN,if these salaries are to be implemented.
1.Clear Non-criminal background(with No cases pending)
2.should have at least completed MASTERS DEGREE ( any field no concern)
"EDUCATION & FREE-FROM-CRIME is a MUST"
good observations!
Tarun, I have been contemplating the same for quite sometime. You may like to view some discussions at http://pai-network.ryze.com
thanks rajesh, I saw the discussion earlier
thanks rajesh, I saw this discussion earlier. B t w I noticed you are using mambo or its variant Open source software for the CMS. Can I recommend civicspace as better suited Open source CMS for a political action platform at peopleofindia.org. And also it makes sense not to have the welcome page which says nothing but click here to enter and have the CMS installed on baseurl instead of /cms.
Best of luck for your endeavors we need more people like you to participate in political process to articulate educated class voice.
INCREASE THE SALARY TO 3 00 000 RS
I completely agree with ypu on the proposed hike of salaries of Indian MPs. Unless you have a stabel, guaranteed system of income, no one will be stable and the MPs and MLAs too are human beings, they too have daughters to marry off and a family to look after.
In the present dispensation, either the royalty like Scindias, business tycoons like the Jindals or hereditary politicians like Sachin Pilot and the intellectuals like IK Gujral or Manmohan Singh who are paid out of the party kitty) can survive.
The rest can forget about ever making it to the parliament, now see if the Indian parliament has to be representative, it must be more broad-based, right? If only the above-mentioned people were to keep making it to the parliament, then the voice of the common man will never reach the upper echelons.
So, what does the ordinary man do, how does he fight his election, he raises loans and if elected tries every trick in the book to return that loan, could be bribes, cash for question, misusing MPLADS funds and many more ways.
If we could somehow make the MP secure, about his future along with his family's by increasing his salary and pension and 'pension to family after death', there are chances that he might not resort to dubious means to gather wealth.
Now, the ultimate question , how much should a MP's salary be, the take home. I propose that considering the low shelf-life of the MPs (70% of the MPs dont get re-elected), he shoudl be paid some Rs. 300 000 per month, apart from allt he other facilities that he has.
he shoudl also get a monthly pension of Rs 20 000 per month and this pension should not be halved after his death and his wife should continue to draw the same pension even after his demise.
HE SHOULD BE ENTITLED TYO FREE ELECTRICITY, RESIDENCE, WATER AND TRANSPORT IN DELGHI AS HE SPENDS ABOUT 5 MONTHS IN DELHI DURING THE PARLIAMENT SESSION AWAY FROM HOME AND FAMILY MEMBERS. HE IS NOT EXPECTED TO BUY HIS OWN HOME IN DELHI OR PAY HIS BILLS ON ELECTRICITY.
WE SHOULD NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE ELECTRICITY AND PHONE BILLS AS HE CANNOT SELL OR ENCASH THEM , HE CAN ONLY UTILISE THEM, IF OUT OF THE 40 000 UNITS , HE DOE SNTO UTILISE 10 000 UNITS SAY THEN, HE CANT SELL THE 10 000 UNITS FOR CASH, IT LAPSES.
HE SHOULD BE ALLOWED UNLIMITED LOCAL AND STD CALLS AS HE NORMALLY ON AN AVERAGE REPRESERNTS ABOUT 18 00 000 PEOPLE. HE HAS ON AN AVERAGE SOME 300 VISITORS EVERYDAY SO HE SHOULD BE GIVEN 3000 RS FOR PROVIDING SNACKS TO THEM.
ALSO HIS SECREATRY ALLOWANCE SHOUDL BE INCREASED FROM 10 000 TO RS 1 00 000 RS IN WHICH HE CAN KEEP 4 SECRETARIES , 2 IN DELHI AND 2 IN HIS CONSTITUENCY AND NO ENGLISH-KNOWING EFFICIENT SECREARY WILL WANT TO WORK FOR HIM IN LESS THAN 25 000 RUPEE.
THE PETROL FOR THE CAR SHOULD BE INCREASED BOTH.
FOR WORK, EVERYONE GETS ALLOWANCES, WHY NOT THE MPs.
HIS FAMILY MEMBERS MUST GET FREE TRAIN TRAVEL AS THEY WOULD WANT TO COME AND MEET HIM IN DELHI WHEN THE PARL IS IN SESSION, AS THE MP LIVES IN DELHI FOR SOMER 5 MONTHS IN A YEAR. SO WHY SHOULD HIS FAMILY MEMBERS NOT BE ALLOWED FREE RAIL TRAVEL. 40 TIMES AIR-TRAVEL SHOULD ALSO BE INCREASED TO AT LEAST 75.
IT IS ONLY THEN THAT WE CAN EXPECT THEM TO BE HONEST AND IF EVEN AFTER THIS, THE MP RESORTS TO DISHONEST MEANS, HANG HIM , GO AHEAD AND HANG HIM PUBLICLY.
BUT , PLS FOR GOD'S SAKE, DO NOT SPREAD MISINFORMATION AND CANARDS AGAINST MPs , I HAPPEN TO KNOW QUITE A FEW OF THEM PERSONALLY, THEY ARE ALWAYS EAGER TO OPEN THEIR DOORS FOR YOU, AND WILL NEVER LET U GO WITHOUT TREATING YOU TO SOMETHING, ALL THIS COSTS THEM MONEY, WHERE DO THEY GET IT FROM? TELL ME.
MOST OF THE MPs' RESIDENCES IN DELHI ARE OPD DEPARTEMNTS OF HOSPITALS, ANYONE FROM THE MP'S CONSTITUENCY CAN WALK INTO HIS HOUSE SAYING HE IS IN NEED OF MEDICAL HELP AND CVAN THEN EXPECT TO STAY IN HIS HOUSE AS LONG HE IS NOT THROUGH WITH HIS TREATMENT EITHERIN SAFDARJUNG, AIIMS OR RAM MANOHAR LOHIA WHERE AGAIN THE MP USES HIS CLOUT ( NOT THE MUSCLE-POWER) TO GET THEM TREATED FREE OF COST.
I AM NOT SAYING THAT WITH THIS INCREASE IN BENEFITS AND SALARIES , CORRUPTION WILL SIMPLY VANISH INTO THIN, AIR BUT CERTAINLY IT WILL LESSEN THE EXTENT AND EXPANSE OF IT, BELIEVE ME WITH TIME IT MIGHT EVEN VANISH.
THANK YOU.
At least do some work folks...
Ridiculous salary for NON-PERFORMERS.
Most of the time they are actually idling away, sleeping or fighting among themselves.
Read:
http://apunkadesh.blogspot.com/
Did you miss the connection totally
You pay peanuts and you get monkeys. They pretend to get paid and they pretend to work. The justification for lack of resources to get work done should first cease to exist. Imagine an honest lawmaker whose wife has to make (sorry for politically in-correct speech) tea for 400 odd visitors everyday.
You are missing the connection totally
It is not true that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Comparing current politicians to Monkeys would be undermining their capabilities. They have meticulously looted the country of crores of crores. The argument that a person is corrupt because of low wages is also not true. Do you mean that the people living on daily meager wages and BPL are all corrupt? Knowledge of weak legal system, lack of transparency, and the intent to loot makes a person corrupt. Why should a lawmakers wife prepare tea for the constituency visitors coming in to meet their MLA of MP? Are we serving free tea and snacks to all those visiting the court asking for justice or when someone visits the Municipal Office to get a work done? I am afraid, these are all unnecessary means of persuading the public to fund them. Never fix the salary arbitrarily based on position the person holds, fix it based on the competence in right place and have steep incentives for performance. I have to disapprove your suggestion, as it is not based on any reasoning or performance criterion.
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