UP Cabinet cuts salaries of ministers, legislators by 30%

LUCKNOW: The state cabinet on Wednesday decided to cut the salaries of ministers, including the chief minister, and legislators by 30% and suspend the Vidhayak Nidhi for one year as part of measures to provide funds to fight the coronavirus pandemic. This amount will be transferred to UP Covid Care Fund.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath presided over the state cabinet meeting that also approved an ordinance to amend the Contingency Fund 1951,increasing the size from Rs 600 crore to Rs 1200 crore.

Finance minister Suresh Khanna said, “The state cabinet decided to cut the salaries of the chief minister, ministers and legislators by 30%, resulting in a total saving of Rs 17.50 crore. This amount will be transferred to the UP Covid Care Fund. The cut in salaries of ministers will save Rs 2.21 crore while the cut in the salaries of legislators will save Rs 15.28 crore.”

Rural development minister Moti Singh said an amount of Rs 1509 crore saved by suspending the Vidhayak Nidhi will be transferred to the UP Covid Care

Fund.

The state cabinet also decided to take the ordinance route to amend the Uttar Pradesh Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act and the Uttar Pradesh State Legislature (Members’ Emoluments and Pension) Act to effect the 30% cut in the salaries of ministers and legislators.

“Yes, ordinances will be promulgated to enforce a 30% cut in the salaries of ministers and legislators. The Vidhayak Nidhi will remain suspended for one

year,” said UP government spokesman and cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh.

“Each minister’s salary will come down by about Rs 33,000 per month,” said Singh.

”At present, a minister gets emoluments of Rs 1.10 lakh per month. This amount includes salary (Rs 40,000), constituency allowance (Rs 50,000) and secretarial allowance (Rs 20,000) As there are 56 ministers in the state, they get a total of Rs 2.21 crore for one year. A legislator’s emoluments include salary (Rs 25,000), constituency allowance (Rs 50,000) and secretarial allowance (Rs 20,000). As there are, 403 MLAs and 100 MLCs, a total of Rs 17.50 crore is paid to the legislators for one year,” said Khanna.

The UP council of ministers has 56 members, including the chief minister, two deputy chief ministers, cabinet ministers, ministers of state (independent charge) and ministers of state.

The UP assembly has a maximum strength of 403 members while the state legislative council has 100 members. Each legislator is entitled to carry out development work for Rs 3 crore every year with funds from the Vidhayak Nidhi.

Earlier, union government decided to bring an ordinance to cut the salaries of its ministers and MPs by 30%.

The chief minister had welcomed the union government’s move.

“Every citizen of India should have a contribution in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The Union cabinet’s decision under the leadership of Prime Minister @narendramodi to have a 30 per cent cut in salaries of MPs is a just and welcome move,” the chief minister said in a tweet.