New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has approved a proposal of the Delhi government to increase the salary of MLAs. Now the basic salary of Delhi MLAs will increase from Rs 12,000 to Rs 30,000 per month and their total salary including allowances will increase to Rs 90,000 from the current Rs 54,000.
After getting suggestions from the Center, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government will bring a law to increase the salary of MLAs. This proposal was sent by the Delhi government in 2015 and then the Center did not approve it. According to AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, in 2015, the Kejriwal government had proposed to the MHA that the salary and allowances of Delhi MLAs should be the same as that of other states.
However, the MHA “restricted the offer” of the Delhi government and capped the salary to Rs 30,000. But it allowed an increase in all allowances including increasing the constituency allowance from Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000; Conveyance allowance from Rs.6,000 to Rs.10,000; Telephone Allowance Rs.8,000 to Rs.10,000 and Secretariat Allowance Rs.10,000 to Rs.15,000.
Addressing a press conference, Bhardwaj said the amended bill should now be placed, passed and notified in the Delhi Assembly. Only after that the total salary of Delhi MLAs will increase to Rs 90,000.
He further added that other states are currently paying 1.5 to 2 times more salary and allowances. “The ban imposed by the Center has ensured that the MLAs of Delhi are among the lowest earning MLAs in the country,” he said.
Sharing the salary details of MLAs from other states, Bharadwaj said that Telangana MLAs earn Rs 2,50,000; earns Rs 2,32,000 in Maharashtra; The people of Uttar Pradesh get Rs 1,87,000; 1,60,000 in Jammu and Kashmir; 1,60,000 in Uttarakhand; 1,30,000 in Andhra Pradesh; Rs 1,25,000 in Himachal Pradesh; Rs 1,25,000 in Rajasthan; Rs 1,17,000 in Goa; Rs 1,15,000 in Haryana and Rs 1,14,000 in Punjab. Commenting on this huge difference, he said, “Despite the salary of Delhi MLAs being Rs 12,000, many websites show it as Rs 2.10 lakh which is completely wrong.”
“This bill is stuck with the Center for the last seven years, from 2015 to 2022. Therefore, for the last seven years, the salary of the MLAs of the Delhi government has been Rs 12,000. Apart from this amount, he gets constituency allowance, conveyance allowance, secretariat allowance and telephone allowance. Secretariat allowance includes the rent of MLA’s offices. Telephone allowance includes bill for various telephones of MLAs.
“The MLAs have a conveyance allowance to be able to move around their constituency for their work. After including all these allowances, the total will come to Rs 54,000 and the same will be available to the MLAs.
If you google the salary of MLAs of Delhi along with other states of the country, you will be shocked to see that the search engine gives it as Rs 2,10,000. You will also find this information on Wikipedia, which is completely wrong.
“So, it is clear that the salary of an MLA in Delhi is the lowest in the country. We wanted to highlight this in front of the national media, so that there is no wrong reporting on the matter,” Bharadwaj said.
