After jumbo Cabinet, mini-relief

This includes salary, telephone bill, travel allowance and meeting allowance. The entire amount of the salaries and allowances of the 69 members would be Rs 1.50 crore every year. After today’s decision, it will come down to Rs 75 lakh.

Shinde said the decision will remain in effect till the present government is in office.However, he remained non-committal about the cost incurred on each ministerial establishment. The cost is projected at Rs 10.56 crore in the current year. This budgetary allocation is based on the previous number of 58 members in the Vilasrao Deshmukh ministry, and may go up with the induction of 11 new members.

In the past two years, it was Rs 9.94 crore and Rs 8.20 crore respectively. It includes the expenditure on a minister’s staff at Mantralaya office and residence, the maintenance of his residence, the cost on his vehicles and other expenses.

Further, the General Administration Department and Public Works Department have to find rooms to accommodate the new members in Mantralaya itself. The cost of creating new offices for ministers will be an extra Rs 25 lakh.

Shinde would not speak on this aspect. For his part, he announced that he will be downsizing the staff in the Chief Minister’s Office by 22. At present, the CMO has a staff of 137. ‘‘It is a first step towards austerity measures,’’ he said, hoping that colleagues in his team will follow suit