Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) justified the hike in salaries of the MLAs and MLCs as means to avoid corruption.
KCR recalled that his salary was Rs 500 when he was first elected to the Andhra Pradesh assembly (between 1985 and 1999). He added that the salary was too little to accommodate a driver. “For the first six months as an MLA, I only drove my car,” KCR said.
KCR feels that the hike in salaries would not burden the government. He added that even former MLAs were given a 100 per cent hike in pension.
The state government has additionally announced to gift iPods and iPhones to both MLAs and MLCs. To this effect, both houses of the state legislature passed the Appropriation Bill on Tuesday. According to media reports, all 120 MLAs and 40 MLCs will receive gift coupons from the state finance department which can later be exchanged for iPods and iPhones. The state finance ministry has made a special budgetary provision of Rs 1.5 crores to purchase iPods and iPhones for the legislators.
