Call it austerity or a subtle way of highlighting the “hardships of Communist ministers”! West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta has turned down a proposal to hike the monthly allowance of state ministers, who earn the lowest in the country.
A minister in West Bengal gets a monthly allowance of just Rs7,500. This allowance, however, is over and above the general monthly MLA allowance of Rs8,000. Recently, the state cabinet mooted a proposal to hike the ministerial allowance stating that rising inflation had made the hike necessary.
However, Dasgupta summarily rejected the proposal. “I agree that the ministerial allowance is too low and inflation is high. However, we have to remember that there are lots of individuals whose monthly income is much less than Rs7,500,” he said.
Political analysts, however, said any hike in ministerial allowance might have an adverse impact on people and Dasgupta did not want to risk public ire. Dasgupta, however, cleared a proposal to increase the member of legislative assembly local area development fund from Rs50 lakh to Rs60 lakh.
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