Speaker Surama Padhy Forms New Panel To Review Proposal For Pay Hike Of MLAs

Surama Padhi, the speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, established a committee on Tuesday to provide suggestions for raising the pensions of previous MLAs and the salaries of current lawmakers. Congress Legislative Party leader Rama Madkami, Opposition Chief Whip Pramila Mallick, BJD MLA Pratap Keshari Deb, Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati, and MLAs Laxman Munda, Prakash Soren, Nihar Mahananda, and Purna Sethi are among the eight members of the committee, which is led by BJP MLA Bhaskar Madhei.

Opposition Chief Whip Pramila Mallick brought up the subject of low pay and pensions for lawmakers and retired MLAs earlier in the day during the Zero Hour, pointing to growing health costs and inflation. She emphasized that when it comes to the pay of lawmakers countrywide, Odisha now comes in at number 27.

Mallick said that a previous BJD government committee had suggested raising lawmakers’ salaries to ₹2.5 lakh per month and pensions to ₹70,000. These suggestions have not yet been put into practice, though. To move the issue along more quickly, she asked the Speaker to form a new committee if needed. The committee’s formation by the Speaker is a step in the direction of resolving long-standing calls for equitable compensation for the state’s parliamentarians.