Gujarat Assembly increases MLAS’ salary by at least `45K

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat Assembly passed a bill on Wednesday by which the salaries of the MLAS, ministers, speaker, deputy speaker and

leader of opposition will go up by at least Rs 45,000 a month.

Accordingly, the monthly salary of the MLAS will be hiked to Rs 1.16 lakh as against the existing Rs 70,727, a rise of about 64 per cent, while those of the ministers, Assembly speaker, deputy speaker and leader of opposition will go up to Rs 1.32

lakh from Rs 86,000, an increase of about 54 per cent.

The revised salaries will come into effect retrospectively from February 2017, with a disbursal of Rs 6 crore in arrears.

The new remuneration structure will put an extra burden of Rs 10 crore annually on the state treasury.

The Salaries and Allow- ances of Members, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, Ministers and Leader of Opposition Laws (Amendment) Bill 2018 was introduced in the House by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Pradipsinh Jadeja and passed unanimously.

After tabling the bill in the House, Jadeja said the salary of the MLAS in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly was not revised since 2005, even as the remuneration of their counterparts in other states was comparatively much higher.

The salaries of the lawmakers in states like Uttarakhand, Telangana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra are Rs 2.91 lakh, Rs 2.50 lakh, Rs 2.25 lakh and Rs 2.13 lakh respectively, while in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Odisha, their salaries are over Rs 1 lakh, he added.