Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is now mulling the option of enhancing the salaries for the MLAs and MLCs in Telangana to ensure that the elected and nominated people’s representatives can take care of their expenses “without looking for other avenues to bolster their income.”
Sources in the CMO said Mr. Rao mooted the idea of enhancing the renumeration to Rs. 2 lakh per month each for the MLas and MLCs. He was of the view that these representatives incur a lot of expenditure as they have to function from their constituencies, district headquarters and the State capital. The other expenses they have to bear is hosting a number of people from their constituencies and fuel expenses were also huge for them.
Currently, the legislators get a salary of Rs 1.2 lakh per month, including the emoluments.
The Chief Minister, it was said, was of the view that corruption free governance must start from the elected representatives and that when adequate salaries were paid to them, it would ensure transparency in administration. It would cost about Rs. 3.2 crore per month to pay these enhanced salaries to 160 MLAs and MLCs in the State.
