Odisha: Widespread Outrage Over Majhi’s Govt’s Bill on 3-Fold Hike in MLA Salaries

Yesteryear purists get nostalgic when they recall that when Odisha had its first Chief Minister in 1956, Nabakrushna Choudhry, who should go down in the annals of Indian politics for setting unparalleled parameters as to what a politician should be.  

When alive, Rabi Ray, the former Lok Sabha Speaker, who hailed from Praja Socialist Party, had long back told this reporter that: “I still remember and it was unbelievable that a man (Nabakrushna Choudhry) clad in a short ‘dhoti’ and a small turban was blistering in the solstice of summer on a bicycle campaigning for himself and his party for votes. I was not only dumbstruck but simply awed”. 

“It is on record that when he left the Chief Minister’s post, he was in a state of abject penury and had borrowed Rs 20 from a friend but could not return that, and instead he gifted the friend with a pen”, Ray had said.

It’s not that the MLAs then were not getting salaries, but Choudhry used to spend almost his entire salary of Rs 5,000 (then) on the needy people who approached him.

There was another personality in Choudhry’s cabinet -- Madhusudan Das, a legal luminary, known as Utkalamani (Jewel of Odisha) -- who had refused to accept any salary because as a noted barrister, he was earning enough money to support his needs.

Politics Today

But in today’s Odisha, the eyebrow raising splurge on MLAs’ salaries has become a hot topic of debate among people on the streets and in every sphere.

In a recent Bill, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mohan Charan Majhi government has made a three-fold hike in the salary of the members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Rs.1,11 lakh to Rs 3,45 lakh/month, perhaps the highest in the country.

Although the Bill is now with the Governor for his assent, the issue has created a flutter in the state.

Odisha, projected as a very backward state, where common persons live on the alms of 5kg rice given by the government, today is wide-eyed at the decision taken by the state government for its MLAs.

While the Bill was tabled in the State Assembly, yards away it could be seen how thousands of teachers, Anganwadi workers and others were braving the winter, sitting on a 24x7 ‘dharna’ demanding a hike in their monthly wages.

“Imagine, an Anganwadi didi who cooks food for hundreds of boys and girls, rain or shine, has to manage with a perk of just Rs. 3,000 per month. They are screaming out their souls demanding an increase in wages, while the system that rules is busy passing a three-fold salary hike for MLAs”, said Kameswar Rao, a senior journalist.    

Political analyst and commentator Rabi Das was more acerbic. “The Bill sounds a megalomaniac step and should be forthwith withdrawn. The Governor should never give his assent. Reading through the break-up of the salaries for the MLAs is just mind boggling”, he said.  

It is a different matter that former Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik has refused to accept the hike, but the entire lot of BJD MLAs have cheered the Bill, clinically detaching themselves from the stance of their chief.  

“What is shocking is that the Majhi government has failed in its faculty of reason, and is prioritising MLAs over common persons”, he added. 

Odisha's Annual Budget for financial year 2025-26 was presented with an outlay of Rs. 2.90 lakh crore, focusing on development sectors, like infrastructure and agriculture, while its debt burden was around Rs. 1.26 lakh crore as of late 2025, with the state asserting that it was within fiscal limits, though facing scrutiny over budget utilisation, notes TaxTMI, a corporate law firm.

“In several parts of Odisha there are reports of protest against the state government’s decision to effect an exorbitant rise in the salary of 147 MLAs, many of whom are men with astronomical fortunes already” rued Das.   

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha with over 40 years’ experience in the profession.