Vox Populi: Abbas Ahmed, Dhiren Baruah, Hemen Barman and Rofique Ali

Guwahati, July 7: Dispur will propose raising the salaries of Assam’s elected representatives by about 400 per cent — making this forthcoming monsoon session of the Assembly one shower of bounty.

Disclosing this today, parliamentary affairs minister Bharat Chandra Narah said the amendment bill to give effect to the new salaries will be introduced in the Assembly on Monday.

Narah said it has been proposed that the salary of the chief minister be hiked from Rs 16,000 to Rs 65,000 per month while those of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, cabinet ministers and the leader of the Opposition would be up from Rs 15,000 to Rs 60,000.

Salaries of ministers of state will go up to Rs 55,000 from Rs 14,000 while deputy ministers will get Rs 50,000 from the present from Rs 13,000.

The salaries of MLAs will be raised from Rs 12,000 to Rs 40,000. It has also been proposed to hike the monthly pension for former ministers from Rs 6,000 to Rs 20,000.

There will be proportionate hike in the various allowances, too, Narah said. The salaries were last revised in 2008.

People’s reaction to the hike will not be music to the legislators’ ears.

Abbas Ahmed, a stationery shop owner here, said recent hikes have only been for government employees and elected representatives who make an insignificant portion of the population.

“The common man has been left to fend for himself in the face of rising prices of essential commodities,” he said.

Rofique Ali, a paan shop owner, put it subtly: “Our prices have remained stagnant. We tried to hike the price of tambul paan to Rs 1.50 but everybody protested.”

Hemen Barman, who works in a private company, asked: “Why isn’t the government doing something about us? We have been working on the same salary for years even though survival has become difficult. There needs to be some uniformity while effecting salary hikes — the common man too needs to be factored in.”

Public activist Dhiren Baruah said the proposed hike in salary of ministers and MLAs was unjustified considering the present situation, when the common man was bearing the brunt of inflation and price rise. “It should be withdrawn by the government as hike in the remuneration of the elected representatives will send a wrong message,” Baruah said.