Two months after a handful of legislators broached the topic in Delhi Assembly, a panel of experts has recommended significant additions to MLAs’ salary packages.
A three-member Committee chaired by former Secretary General of the Lok Sabha PDT Achary, in its report submitted to Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, on Tuesday, favoured a 400 per cent hike in the basic salary of the Capital’s MLAs — from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 50,000 per month — in addition to a slew of allowances for purposes ranging from travel to office furniture.
The Committee also felt that while the revised salary and allowances be effective for one term, it also recommended that legislators’ salary be raised by 10% of the basic salary, or Rs. 5,000, every year from the date on which the new pay and allowances came into force to 'neutralise the impact of inflation.'
It is pertinent to mention here that a similar exercise, presided over by the former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of the Congress at the beginning of her third and final term in 2011, had resulted in a two-fold increase in MLAs’ salary with the Home Ministry , however, curtailing recommendations to increase allocation for allowances.
“The Committee has recommended increase in the existing salary of MLAs from Rs. 12,000 per month to Rs. 50,000 per month. Also, total salary and allowances of MLAs have been recommended to be enhanced from the present Rs. 88,000 per month to Rs. 2.10 lakh per month,” Mr. Achary said.
Apart from basic salary, the committee has recommended hiking constituency allowance from current Rs. 18,000 to Rs 50,000, a reimbursable sum of Rs. 70,000 per month has also been recommended as allowance under ‘Secretarial, Research and Office Assistance’ head from Rs. 30,000, an ‘office rental and related utilities’ allowance of Rs. 25,000, a communication allowance of Rs. 10,000 per month as well as Rs. 30,000 as monthly conveyance allowance for each MLA.
One-time allowances for ‘office furnishing’ at Rs. 60,000 and a vehicle loan of Rs. 12 lakh have also been recommended. The report will now be put before the Assembly’s Committee of Salary and Allowances for consideration following which the Cabinet will consider it and, if accepted, will come up with a Bill to be sent to the Home Ministry for approval.
