Are we living on MLA's pay, YCP's Sridhar Reddy asks AP House

Overcoming party barriers, Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy, of the YCP, on Wednesday strongly opposed the Andhra Pradesh MLAs cutting across party lines giving themselves higher pay packets. Speaking in the State Assembly on the issue of pay rise, Sridhar Reddy said his conscience did not permit him to approve of higher pay packets for the AP MLAs. On the one hand, the TDP government tells people to make sacrifices on grounds that it has no money, and on the other the government gives a hefty pay rise to the MLAs. (It is proposed to give the MLAs a 300% pay rise). Challenging the government, Sridhar Reddy said the government could hold a referendum in any constituency of its choice in the State to ascertain the people's thinking on the issue of pay rise to the MLAs. If the people favoured the pay rise for the MLAs in the referendum, the YCP MLA said he would immediately resign from the House and give up politics. He said anti-people policies should be shunned. Sridhar Reddy asked the House a straight question: `Are the MLAs living on the salary they received as MLAs?' Although all the MLAs supported the pay rise, he said he was totally opposed to the move. There was not even a hint of politics in the Sridhar Reddy proposal.