Legislators set to give themselves pay hike

The legislators and members of the legislative council (MLCs) may give themselves a salary hike on Thursday. The state cabinet approved the relevant proposal on Wednesday. Once cleared by both houses, the salary of the members will jump close to Rs72,000 from the present Rs44,000 per month.

The hike was proposed by a 12-member committee led by the finance minister in the monsoon session. Though the basic salary of a member is Rs2,000, the perks and allowances take his total earning to Rs44,000.

The allowances include Rs25,000 towards mileage, Rs8,000 towards telephone bills, Rs7,500 towards postage allowance; and a consolidated allowance of Rs1,500. This does not include air, rail travel fare benefits and salary of the personal assistants.

The new proposal will take the basic salary to Rs4,000 and mileage allowance to Rs46,000. DNA was the first to report about the proposal on August 24. The basic salaries of ministers will go up to Rs10,000 from Rs5,000.

The state has 289 MLAs and 78 MLCs. The basic salary of a legislator in Gujarat is Rs21,000, while in Delhi and Karnataka, it is Rs90,000 and Rs12,000 respectively.