20% hike in pay for Haryana ministers

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 4

The Haryana Assembly today passed amendment Bills to hike the salaries of Speaker, Deputy Speaker, ministers and the Leader of Opposition by 20 per cent and office allowances by 10 times with retrospective effect from April 1, 2016.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also assured the House that the government would bring an ordinance to increase the pension of former MLAs in view of the rise in cost of living. The demand was raised by legislators Karan Singh Dalal (Congress) and Jai Parkash (Independent).

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The Assembly passed the Haryana Salaries and Allowances of Ministers (Amendment) Bill, 2017, to amend the Haryana Salaries and Allowances of Ministers Act, 1970, increasing the salary of ministers from Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 per month and the office allowance from Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000 per month.

Under the Haryana Legislative Assembly (Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill, 2017, which was also passed unanimously, the salary of Leader of the Opposition has been increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 per month.

The Assembly also passed the Haryana Legislative Assembly Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2017, to further amend the Haryana Legislative Assembly Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s Salaries and Allowances Act, 1975.

The salaries of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker have been increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 60,000 per month and the Office Allowances from Rs 2,000 to Rs 20,000 per month.

The salaries of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and ministers were last raised from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 per month on September 11, 2013 during the Hooda regime.

The MLAs had received a salary hike — from Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 per month — on August 31, 2016, when the last monsoon session of the Assembly was on. Their constituency allowance was also doubled from Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000 per month, office allowance from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 per month, sumptuary allowance from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 and the daily allowance from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 for a maximum of 15 days in a month.

Besides, free travelling facility for MLAs was increased from Rs 2 lakh per year to Rs 3 lakh per year.