Hyderabad: The Telangana Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill to hike salaries and allowances of state legislators including the Chief Minister, Speaker, deputy Speaker of Assembly, Council of Ministers, chairman and deputy chairman of Legislative Council, Leader of Opposition in Assembly and Council, Government Whips, MLAs and MLCs.
Legislative affairs minister T. Harish Rao moved the Telangana Payment of Salaries and Pension and Removal of Disqualifications (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
While the TS Legislature Committee on Amenities, which met last week, had recommended increasing the salaries and allowances of legislators from the present Rs 95,000 to Rs 3.50 lakh, the government approved only Rs 2.50 lakh.
The MLAs and MLCs at present get Rs 12,000 as salary and Rs 83,000 towards allowances. Their salary was now being hiked to Rs 20,000 and allowances to Rs 2.30 lakh.
The CM's salary has been hiked from Rs 16,000 to Rs 51,000 per month.
However, special allowance, sumptuary allowance, security car allowance remains the same at Rs 8,000, Rs 7,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively.
But the conveyance allowance (fuel) has been doubled from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000 (if a bullet proof car is used). If a regular car is used, the conveyance allowance has been fixed at Rs 10,000.
Observing that the hike is necessary for people like him who came from humble background, Congress member Sampath Kumar said his party welcomed the bill. BJP member Ch Ramachandra Reddy sought a hike in the vehicle loan.
On the occasion, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said the economic dynamics have undergone a sea change over the years.
He noted that the legislators have to attend a number of meetings of the government, zilla parishad and others, besides taking care of number of visitors everyday.
"They also have to bear the costs involved in travelling within the constituency, to the district head quarters and also the state capital city," CM said. He also made an appeal to the media to understand the prevailing situation.
"The estimated expenditure of Rs 42 crores does not constitute even the perceptible percentage of the state budget (of more than Rs one lakh crore)," adds CM.
Salary for the Council of Ministers, including Deputy CM and Government Whips in the Assembly has been increased from Rs 14,000 to Rs 30,000 and the allowances have been increased on par with the CM.
The salaries for the Speaker and Chairman of Assembly and Council have been increased to Rs 41,000 and other allowances on par with the CM. The Deputy Speaker and Deputy Chairman’s salaries have been increased to Rs 30,000 and the allowances are on par with the CM.
Former legislators too have got a hike in pension, from the present Rs 15,000 per month for serving one term to Rs 30,000. For those who have served more than one term, the pension has been increased from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000.
Spouses of legislators will get full pension in case of a member’s demise besides unlimited medicare. At present, a spouse gets half the pension in case of a legislator’s death. There are 120 MLAs and 40 MLCs in the Telangana Legislature, besides 292 ex-MLAs, 42 ex-MLCs and 171 widows are drawing pensions.
