Guwhati:
Unlike the chaos in some states, the Assam Assembly's monsoon session has passed off without a glitch. That's because one of the bills introduced was an amendment seeking pay hike for MLAs.
On the last day of the session the legislators gave themselves a raise of whopping 400%.
"There was already a consensus that basic salaries should be increased," said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bharat Narah of the Indian National Congress.
Salary of the Chief Minister has gone up from Rs 16,000 to Rs 83,000 per month while those of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Cabinet Ministers and the leader of the Opposition has gone up from Rs 15,000 to Rs 75,000.
If that is not all even the perks have been increased.
Before the bill was passed by a voice vote there was some opposition from legislators themselves.
"When 80% of the people in the state are workers and salaried middle-class and their resources have neither increased nor improved, I cannot justify ministers increasing their salaries by four times," said Communist Party of India MLA Dhrupod Buragohain.
The salary hike experts say this will not impact the wage bill significantly.
However, the timing of the raise has not gone down too well considering that people are fighting inflation.