The rift between the Centre and Delhi government is expected to widen with the former “not accepting” the state government’s proposal to bring the salaries of the city’s MLAs at par with “BJP and Congress-ruled states”, sources said.
Delhi government sources claimed that the capital’s MLAs will remain among the “lowest paid” in the country when compared to MLAs in other states. The matter will come up for discussion in a scheduled Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, they said.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs of the BJP-led Centre restricted the proposal of the Delhi government and capped the salary of the MLAs to only Rs 30,000, even as the cost of living in Delhi has risen substantially. The constituency allowance has been capped at Rs 25,000, secretarial allowance at Rs 15,000, telephone allowance at Rs 10,000 and conveyance allowance at Rs 10,0000,” a source said.
The current salary and allowance structure of Delhi’s MLAs were last revised in November, 2011, under which they get Rs 88,000 per month. This includes their salary of Rs 12,000, Rs 18,000 constituency allowance, Rs 10,000 secretarial allowance, Rs 6,000 conveyance allowance, Rs 8,000 towards telephone facilities, maximum Rs 4,000 reimbursement on water and power consumption and Rs 30,000 for reimbursing two data entry operators.
Additionally, they stand to get Rs 50,000 reimbursement annually on travel within India. The ministers get around Rs 1.2 lakh per month salary.