J&K CM paid less than MLAs as Bill stays unamended

Legislators in militancy-prone Jammu and Kashmir draw more salary than the chief minister, deputy chief minister and other ministers.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti

SRINAGAR: Believe it or not: legislators in militancy-prone Jammu and Kashmir draw more salary than the chief minister, deputy chief minister and other ministers. Official sources said the legislators’ salary is also more than that of the legislative assembly (LA) speaker, deputy speaker, legislative council (LC) chairman and deputy chairman.

The salaries of the MLAs and MLCs were hiked by 100 per cent in July last year after the legislature cleared a bill to double their pay and allowances. It was the third hike in the salary of State legislators in the last 10 years. After the passage of the bill, the salary of legislators went up from Rs 80,000 to Rs 16,0000.

According to sources, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, ministers, Assembly speaker Kavinder Gupta, deputy speaker Nazir Gurezi, the LC chairman, deputy chairman are not receiving the revised salaries.

“They are still getting the old salaries,” they said. The chief minister, who was getting Rs 90,000 as salary and allowances, was to get Rs 1.80 lakh after the pay hike. The cabinet ministers were to draw revised salary of Rs 1.70 lakh instead of Rs 85,000 earlier and ministers of state Rs 1.60 lakh per month instead of Rs 80,000.

According to sources, a legislator gets Rs 60,000 as basic salary, Rs 60,000 as CCA (Constituency Allowance), Rs 30,000 as telephone expenditure and Rs 10,000 as Medical Allowance (MA) which amounts to a gross salary of Rs 1.60 lakh.

The increase in the salaries and allowances to the chief minister, ministers and legislators in 2016 put an additional burden of Rs 12 crore a year on the State exchequer. Sources said separate amendments are needed for hiking salaries of legislators and the chief minister, deputy chief minister, LA speaker, deputy speaker, LC chairman, deputy chairman and ministers in the State government.

The amendment bill for hiking the salaries of legislators was passed last year, but for some reasons, the State Law Department did not introduce the amendment bill for hiking the salaries of the chief minister, DyCM, speaker, deputy speaker, LC chairman, deputy chairman and ministers in the government, they said.

They said the Law Department may introduce the bill on increase in wages of CM, DyCM, ministers and others in the Legislative Assembly soon.

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