The Delhi [ Images ] government on Wednesday approved a proposal seeking a hike in the salaries of members of legislative assembly and ministers by up to 300 percent, citing inflation and increased cost of living in the capital, three months after the Centre rejected a similar request.
A meeting of the Delhi Cabinet presided by Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit cleared the proposal, which will now be sent to the home ministry for approval.
As per the proposal, an MLA who currently gets nearly Rs 32,000 monthly, including all incentives, will get nearly Rs one lakh while the monthly emolument of a minister will go up to Rs 1,20,000 from the current Rs 43,000 a month.
"We have cleared the proposal. We will now be sending it to the Centre for approval," Dikshit said after the Cabinet meeting. The move comes three months after the home ministry rejected a similar proposal on the grounds that perks and privileges, which were not even granted to MPs, were sought by the Delhi government for its legislators.
Officials said if approved by the Centre, the enhanced salary will put an additional burden of Rs 16.21 crore on the exchequer annually. In the revised proposal, the government has dropped the demands for petrol allocation and interest-free car loans for legislators.
The Centre in November last year had rejected the proposal, seeking a hike of up to 200 per cent in the monthly salary of MLAs and nearly 300 per cent in the salaries drawn by ministers.
The proposal also seeks 2,000 units of free power for legislators per month, while it has fixed 10,000 kilolitres of water free of charge per month for them.
The government has also sought 20 free trips each through air and rail per year for a legislator to and from Delhi to anywhere in the country along with a close family member or an official.
Earlier, the home ministry had said that as salary of legislators are revised after every five years, any hike of the salary of Delhi legislators could only be considered in 2012 as their salary was hiked in 2007.
The official said the proposal has been prepared as inflation has gone up substantially and all the government officials were given a hefty hike in the salaries following the Sixth Pay Commission report.
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