NEW DELHI: BJP member Varun Gandhi today questioned the lawmakers’ power to hike their own salaries and objected to major bills like Aadhaar being passed without serious discussion or referring them to a parliamentary panel.
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, he also pitched for an external body to decide on salary hike for lawmakers while wondering whether the MPs had “earned” the 400 per cent renumeration hike they had given to themselves in the last decade.
“When matters regarding salary are raised recurrently, it makes me worry about the moral compass of the House. Nearly 18,000 farmers have committed suicide over the last one year. Where is our focus?” he asked.
He said it was “shameful” that the number of sittings in the Lok Sabha had dropped from 123 days a year in 1952 to 75 in 2016.
“The Winter Session, 2016, hit a low point of 16 per cent. It is shameful. Taxation bills, as significant as Aadhaar, were passed within two weeks without being referred to a committee,” he said. (AGENCIES)
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