DEHRADUN: After state government decided to implement a cut of 30 per cent on salary and allowances of Chief Minister, Ministers and MLAs, majority of BJP MLAs failed to comply, revealed an RTI.
The RTI query was filed last month by Manoj Rawat, INC MLA from Kedarnath state assembly constituency.
"The RTI shows that how insincere are the BJP leaders and how much they care about people. It is tax payers money from which we are getting paid and as representatives of the people we should not shy away from giving this money back to help those very people only," he said.
Salaries and allowances for a month for one MLA amounts to Rs 3.25 lakh.
An amount of Rs 57,600 is being deducted from salaries and allowances from all 11 INC MLAs while only 13 MLAs of BJP out of 57 have agreed to deduct Rs 57,600 from their salaries.
Total 16 MLAs of BJP are having a deduction of Rs 30,000 per month, four MLAs of ruling party are having a deduction of Rs 12,600 per month while three BJP MLAs are having a deduction of Rs 9,000 per month since the month of May, this year.
Interestingly, the state assembly secretariat did not provide information about deduction from salaries and allowances of the Chief Minister and the cabinet ministers
Indira Hridayesh, leader of opposition in the state legislative assembly, a rank that of a cabinet minister and MLA of INC from Haldwani is taking a cut of Rs 75,600 since the month of May 2020.
Bansidhar Bhagat, state BJP president who has been taking deduction of Rs 9,000 since last three months said, "We are taking deductions as told which is 30% of our basic salary. Congress party is spreading misinformation."
Earlier, in May this year, the state cabinet took a decision that 30% of the salaries and allowances of ministers, MLAs of the state including the chief minister will be cut to be deposited in Chief Minister's Relief Fund' to be used in fight for COVID-19 pandemic.