New Delhi: The Arvind Kejriwal government Tuesday approved a 66 per cent hike in the salaries and allowances of Delhi MLAs. The move was proposed by the Centre. However, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government expressed discontent that they were still among the lowest-paid legislators in India. The huge hike coming in the wave of the Covid-19 pandemic will certainly not please the common man.
The hike comes after a decade and was given the nod at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. It raises the existing monthly salary and allowances from Rs 54,000 to Rs 90,000, said a Delhi government statement. The Kejriwal government had requested the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that the salary and allowances of Delhi MLAs should be at par with those from other states, it said. However, the MHA ‘restricted the proposal’ of the Delhi government. It capped the salary to only Rs 30,000, it added.
“The BJP and Congress ruled states are currently paying 1.5 to two times higher salaries and allowances. The restriction imposed by the Centre has forced Delhi’s MLAs to be amongst the lowest earning MLAs in the country,” the AAP government said.
Earlier, the MLAs were paid Rs 54,000 per month including Rs 12,000 salary and the remaining amount as allowances.
The constituency allowance has been increased from Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000, secretarial allowance from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000, telephone allowance from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 and conveyance allowance from Rs 6000 to Rs 10,000. The salary and allowances of Delhi MLAs were last revised in 2011.
Several BJP, Congress and regional party ruled states provide much more monthly salaries to their MLAs. Even though living costs in Delhi are higher than most parts of India, the MLAs are not paid enough the Delhi government said. It added states like Uttarakhand (Rs 1.98 lakh monthly salary for MLAs), Himachal Pradesh (Rs 1.9 lakh), Haryana (Rs 1.55 lakh), Bihar (Rs 1.3 lakh), Rajasthan (Rs 1.42 lakh) and Telangana (Rs 2.5 lakh) pay much more. Many states provide several other perks to their MLAs like house rent, office rent and staff expenses, allowance for buying office equipment, vehicle, and driver allowance that the Delhi government does not do.
Delhi MLAs are also entitled to a daily allowance of Rs 1,000 (subject to a maximum of 40 days per year) for attending Assembly session or committee meetings, conveyance advance up to Rs 4,00,000 (repayable within office term), free medical facilities, Rs 4,000 per month for electricity and water, annual travelling facility worth Rs 50,000, and Rs 30,000 per month for hiring two data entry operators.
The government statement did not mention any change in these allowances.
The proposal for an increase in the salary and allowances of Delhi MLAs was pending with the MHA for the last 5 years, the government claimed. “After several discussions, the MHA decided to restrict the increase to up to Rs 90,000 per month,” it said.