No one objected on pay hike: Kiriella

Public Enterprise Development Minister and House Leader Lakshman Kiriella said yesterday there was no objection from anyone at the July 17 party leaders meeting to the proposed pay hike of parliamentarians in line with the salary scales of judicial officers.

He told Daily Mirror the salary of an MP is linked to that of a High Court Judge, the salary of a deputy minister to that of an Appeal Court judged and a Cabinet minister’s salary equated to a Supreme Court Judge.

The minister said Speaker Karu Jayasuriya and Deputy Chairman of Committees Selvam Adaikkalanathan and party representatives such as, Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan, TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran, Ministers Mahinda Samarasinghe, Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mano Ganeshan, JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, joint opposition’s parliamentary group leader Dinesh Gunawardane and EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, attended the meeting.

When asked for a comment, Mr. Sumanthiran said there was no proposal for any salary increase and pointed out that the salary scales of lawmakers were linked to those of judges.

He said there was an upward revision of salaries of judges in January, 2018 and accordingly, the salaries of law makers were bound to rise.

(Source: Daily Mirror – By Kelum Bandara)