The Government of Telangana is seriously considering increasing salaries of the legislators and ministers and pension to former legislators. It is also mulling over giving allowances to Members of Parliament in addition to the emoluments they get from the Centre.
In the review meeting conducted by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on the issue on Monday, it was proposed that the monthly salary and allowances to legislators would be increased to Rs. 2 lakh from the present Rs. 95,000. Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma, Principal Secretary (CMO) S. Narsing Rao and others participated.
The Chief Minister was of the opinion that the emoluments being provided to the legislators now were insufficient as they had to tour their constituencies, attend the Legislature sessions, participate in programmes and meetings held at district headquarters and attend the House Committee meetings in their personal vehicles.
“When we want the elected representatives to work honestly, it will become imperative to give them proper emoluments since the salary and allowances they are getting now are paltry compared to their expenses,” Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao said at the meeting. They have been incurring huge expenditure on their tours, he said adding that increasing salary and allowances would become inevitable in such circumstances.
Officials explained to the Chief Minister that there were 120 MLAs and 40 MLCs in Telangana. They include Chief Minister, Ministers and Cabinet-rank legislators numbering 36. Monthly emoluments at Rs. 2 lakh each for 124 legislators, excluding the CM, Ministers and others, would amount to Rs. 2.5 crore. It would be Rs. 30 crore per annum and Rs. 150 crore for five years.
Since they were already being paid Rs. 75 crore, the additional burden would only be another Rs. 75 crore and it would be mere 0.14 per cent of the budget approved by the legislators in their five-year term, the Chief Minister said. He asked the officials to examine doubling of salaries to ministers and increasing pension to former legislators.
He also asked the officials to examine payment of allowances to MPs as the emoluments paid by the Centre to them were not sufficient.
