BHUBANESWAR: In a puja bonanza for MLAs and ministers, the State Cabinet on Wednesday effected a substantial hike to the monthly salary of legislators in view of inflation.
A Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, accepted the recommendations of a three-member Cabinet sub-committee headed by Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera to raise the salary of the MLAs from the existing Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh per month. They are, however, entitled to other facilities like daily allowances, travelling allowances, car advance and health insurance. The overall hike of 67 per cent will benefit 147 MLAs of the State.
The revised salaries of the lawmakers will be made effective retrospectively from January 1, 2017. The last revision of salary and allowances of the legislators was made in April 2011.
The Chief Minister’s salary has been raised from Rs 59,000to Rs 98,000, which includes sumptuary allowance of Rs 40,000 and car allowance of Rs 17,000. The Speaker of the Assembly will get an enhanced salary of Rs 97,500 against the existing pay of Rs 58,500 while the Deputy Speaker’s salary was raised from Rs 57,000 to Rs 95,000.The Cabinet ministers will get a revised salary of Rs 97,000 each against the existing pay of Rs 58,000 while the Minister of States will take Rs 95,000.
The salaries of the Leader of Opposition and the Government Chief Whip has been increased from Rs 58,000 to Rs 97,000 while the revised salary of the Government Deputy Chief Whip has been raised from Rs 56,000 to Rs 93,000 per month. In case of MLAs, the basic pay was hiked from Rs 16,000 to Rs 35,000, while constituency and secretarial allowance was revised to Rs 20,000 from Rs 13,000, conveyance allowance from Rs 7,000 to Rs 15,000, fixed allowance from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000, books, journals and periodicals allowance from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 and electricity allowance from Rs 2,000 to 5,000.
However, their medical and telephone allowances have remained unchanged at Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000, sources in the Parliamentary Affairs department said.The State Cabinet also approved the proposal for a hike in pension of former MLAs from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 per month. The additional pension of Rs 1,000 per month for each year in excess of five years has been revised to Rs 2,000 with a cap at Rs 70,000. Earlier, the maximum pensionary benefit was Rs 35,000 per month.
Earlier in the day, MLAs, cutting across party lines, met the Chief Minister in the Assembly and urged him to hike their salary and increase the amount for MLA Local Area Development (LAD) Fund.
The members of ruling BJD, Opposition Congress and BJP said that there was every justification to hike the salary of the MLAs after the State Government implemented the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission for the Government employees.