The Lok Sabha has passed a bill seeking hike in the salary, allowances and pension of the Members of Parliament. Most of the members wanted an independent mechanism to decide the issues relating to salary and other allowances. Their argument was that it is not dignified for the members to decide their own salary and allowances and it also sends a wrong message. Replying to a discussion, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal said that the in-principle decision on the formation of an independent mechanism was taken in 2006. He assured the members that the formation of such a mechanism will be done after having wide ranging consultations. He, however, said it is difficult to come out with such a mechanism without consultations before the end of this session as demanded by senior BJP leader, Mr. L K Advani. Earlier, Mr Advani had suggested that since the decision in this regard was taken by the Union Cabinet long time back, there was no need for further discussions and the government should announce the mechanism by Tuesday, the last day of the Monsoon session. The bill provides for increasing the monthly salary of MPs from 16 thousand to 50 thousand rupees. The monthly pension will be raised from eight thousand rupees to 20 thousand rupees and for every additional year over and above five years membership, the monthly allowance will be raised from 800 rupees to 1500 rupees. These will be effective from the date of the constitution of the 15th Lok Sabha that is 18th of May 2009. The MPs will get the daily allowance two thousand rupees, which is double the amount they are getting now. The constituency allowance will be raised from 20 thousand to 45 thousand rupees and office allowance also from 20 thousand to 45 thousand rupees, out of which 28 thousand rupees will be payable to the staff employed by an MP. The members will also be entitled to get enhanced road mileage from 13 rupees per kilometer to 16 rupees. The spouse of the MPs will also be able to travel any number of times in the first class air conditioned or executive class in any train from the place of residence to Delhi and back even if the spouses are not accompanied by the members. Participating in the discussion, some members were of the view that the proposed independent mechanism should not include members of Parliament while a few felt that they should be involved in the mechanism. AIR Correspondent reports that members belonging to Left Parties protested against the hike.