New Delhi, (Samajweekly) The Ministry of Home Affairs has restricted Delhi governments proposal to increase the salary of the Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of Delhi, sources told IANS.
Proposal for an increase in salary and allowances of Delhi MLAs was pending with the MHA for the last 5 years. Sources privy with the development said that the MHA has “restricted the proposal.”
The six-member committee of AAP MLAs, which was formed by the Delhi Assembly to take up the issue of the proposed hike in salary of ministers and legislators with the Centre, had sent the proposal last time in March this year.
The Committee had pass the Bill in 2015 with proposal to increase MLA’s salary and wages from the current Rs 12,000 to Rs 50,000 and their overall monthly pay from Rs 88,000 at present to Rs 2.1 lakh.
The committee had then contented that the salary of Delhi MLAs’ hasn’t increased since 2011.
It said that Delhi MLAs are amongst the lowest salary receiving MLAs in the country in comparison to other states and Union Territories (UTs).
The Committee had then claimed that MLAs of Uttarakhand get around Rs 1.98 lakh monthly in the name of salary and other service, in Himachal Pradesh Rs 1.90 lakh, in Haryana Rs 1.55 lakh and in Bihar Rs 1.3lakh.
The Rajasthan government pays around Rs 1.42 lakh to its MLAs and Telangana around Rs 2.5 lakh per month.
Many states provide many other services to their MLAs, which the Delhi government doesn’t provide like house rent allowance, office rent and staff expenses, allowance for buying office equipments, vehicle for usage, driver allowance, etc.
Sources in Delhi government said that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will discuss the matter during the cabinet meeting proposed for Tuesday.
