The Delhi government, during two days Monsoon session passed a bill to increase the salaries of MLAs, ministers, Speaker and Leader of Opposition (LoPs) in the Delhi Assembly today.
An MLA in Delhi at present gets a sum of Rs 54,000 per month as salary and allowances, which is likely to increase to Rs 90,000 after the hike. Addressing media after the assembly session, Deputy Chief minister Manish Sisodia said,
“A bill to increase the salaries of MLAs, ministers, Speaker and LoPs has been passed in the Delhi Assembly today. For the last 11 years, MLAs were getting a salary of Rs 12,000, which has now been increased to Rs 30,000…. total salary will be Rs 90,000.”
He further said that the Delhi government had already passed the bill, but the Centre had few objections seven years ago.
“There were a lot of discussions on this in the last seven years. However, the central government had a few objections seven years ago. But after incorporating their suggestions, Delhi Assembly has once again passed this bill and hopes for the Centre to pass it,” stated Sisodia.
In May this year, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel informed that the salary was increased in 2011, so the government presented the proposed hike to the Centre in 2015 but it was turned down.
He had requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to compare the salaries with other state MLAs as he claimed many states like Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh are getting around Rs 2 lakh as the total amount.