The Gujarat Legislative Assembly on Wednesday has passed a bill to raise the monthly salaries of the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) by Rs 45,000.
So the Gujarat MLAs on bestowed themselves with a lucrative 65 per cent in their monthly salaries. The salaries have been revised for the first time after 2005.
The ruling BJP, Congress and two MLAs of the NCP unanimously passed the Salaries and Allowances of Members, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, Ministers and Leader of Opposition Laws (Amendment) Bill 2018 on the State Assembly. The bill was introduced by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Pradeepsinh Jadeja.
Previously, the salary of MLAs was Rs 70, 727 which has now been increased to Rs 1, 16,316 with a hike of Rs 45,589. The lawmakers' daily allowances will rise to Rs 1,000 from Rs 200 and monthly postal allowance of Loss of Pay (LOP) has been raised to Rs 10, 000 from Rs 1,000.
The revised salaries will come into operation retrospectively from February 2017, with a disbursal of Rs 6 crore in arrears.
The new remuneration structure will also create an extra burden of Rs 10 crore annually on the state's exchequer.
Opposition Congress MLAs also supports the salary revision. Congress legislator Niranjan Patel, "What is wrong in that? When everybody's salaries have been raised, why should there be a problem if our pay is hiked? We too have to look after our children and run our homes,". He even said that the lawmakers be compensated for the "unbearable fuel prices hike".
A stated by Minister of State for Home, Pradeepsinh Jadeja who moved the Bill in the House, the salary and allowances of Uttarakhand MLAs is Rs 2.91 lakh, Jharkhand Rs 2.25 lakh,Telangana Rs 2.50 lakh,Uttar Pradesh Rs 1.95 lakh, Himachal Pradesh Rs 2.10 lakh, Haryana Rs 1.63 lakh, Jammu And Kashmir Rs 1.60 lakh, Delhi Rs 1.34 lakh, Rajasthan Rs 1.30 lakh Assam Rs 1.30 lakh, and that of Punjab MLAs is Rs 1.15 lakh.
Jadeja also added the new bill will take the basic salary of the deputy secretary as the criterion.
The Gujarat Assembly has 182 elected members and the ast Assembly election was organised in the state in December 2017. The BJPled Govt. in Gujarat has 99 MLAs in the and the opposition Congress has 77, there are three Independents, one from Nationalist Congress Party and two from Bharatiya Tribal Party.
In this juncture raising the salary issue of Anganwadi and Asha workers, Independent Dalit MLA Jignesh Mewani said, "It is obvious...every legislator, including myself, is glad. But I have a rider, what about salaries of ASHA workers and Anganwadi workers as well as mid-day meal and contractual sanitation workers? I will bring a private member bill about this in the next session of the Assembly."