MPs raised their salary by almost 50%: Is it really justifiable

-->  Last week the National Assembly unanimously raised concerned about the high sitting fees of the Board Members of DHI. Many said that that it is beyond what they are supposed to get comparing with board members in other corporate and private agencies.  But yesterday, a report by Bhutan Broadcasting Service, the National Assembly decided to increase the salary of MPs to Nu. 50,445 from July 1, 2010.  This is ridiculous that they rejected for other, on the other hand they easily passed their own share without much deliberations and controversies.

Last year, the Prime Minister said that owing to the global economic crunch, government cannot increase the salary of the civil servants much as expected or proposed previously. After many controversies, the government decided to give the increase in salary as allowance and said that they will include in the basic pay only in the year 2010.

In a televised plea to the house owners, the Prime Minister requested the house owners not to increase the house rent of the tenants owing to little increase in their salary. It was more interesting to know through a Kuensel report that even some of the high level civil servants and cabinet ministers themselves increase d their house rents.  Most house owners  were least bothered about the Tenancy Act 2004 and the tenants could not do much as there were not other alternatives than to pay the rent.

Today, it is more astonishing to see that the members of parliament who call themselves “Servants of the people” raised their salary as high as 50%. These are some of the outcomes of our new democracy like in any other country.

We hope the government is doing in the best interest of the nation and for the better service delivery with the increase in their salary.

This is not to offend any person or any organization, but merely my own opinion as a concerned citizen.