Sans appraisal, Gujarat MLAs get 65% salary hike

  • | Wednesday | 19th September, 2018

GANDHINAGAR: It was a windfall for 182 Gujarat MLAs who got a whopping 65% hike in their monthly salaries. The salary of the MLAs has been raised from just over Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.16 lakh per month. Ministers and those in key posts in the state assembly will draw a monthly salary of Rs 1.32 lakh. Jadeja suddenly introduced the bill saying that the leader of the opposition, Paresh Dhanani, had agreed to have the bill introduced. “Now, it remains to be seen when the salary of employees working on fixed pay and contractual basis for the government will be hiked.

GANDHINAGAR: It was a windfall for 182 Gujarat MLAs who got a whopping 65% hike in their monthly salaries. The salary of the MLAs has been raised from just over Rs 70,000 to Rs 1.16 lakh per month. Ministers and those in key posts in the state assembly will draw a monthly salary of Rs 1.32 lakh. The MLAs will get arrears from February 2018. The total burden of arrears on the exchequer will be more than Rs 6 crore. The minister of state for home Pradeepsinh Jadeja on Wednesday tabled the The Gujarat Salaries and Allowance of Members, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly , Ministers and Leader of the Opposition Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018. The BJP and the Congress had agreed a week ago in the assembly business committee to pass this bill but had not included it in the list of daily business for Wednesday. Jadeja suddenly introduced the bill saying that the leader of the opposition, Paresh Dhanani, had agreed to have the bill introduced. Dhanani and the deputy leader of the opposition, Shailesh Parmar, supported the bill and it was unanimously passed after a brief discussion.“The salaries and allowances of all MLAs was last revised way back in 2005,” Jadeja stated in the statement of objects and reason. “It is considered necessary to revise salaries and allowances. It is hence proposed to pay MLAs salary per month at the rate of minimum basic pay payable to the deputy secretary of the state government.”The bill also proposed to do away with multiple allowances and introduced dearness allowance for MLAs to be paid on a par with the allowance paid to government employees.Ministers, the speaker, the deputy speaker and the leader of the opposition will get 25% more than the basic salary earned by the MLAs. Interestingly, the Congress, which has been warring with the BJP over fuel price hike and loan waiver for farmers, was perfectly in sync with the ruling party over the salary raise. Sailesh Parmar said: “We are the lawmakers who used to earn less than government officers who implement the laws. A raise was the need of the hour.”Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani said that he did not oppose the bill. “It is good that our salary has been hiked,” he said. “Now, it remains to be seen when the salary of employees working on fixed pay and contractual basis for the government will be hiked. In the next session, I will move a bill to eliminate fixed pay.”

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