Delhi assembly to clear salary hike for ministers, MLAs

The session will begin on Monday with obituary references at 11am after which the MLAs will raise local issues and draw the attention of the government, according to the list of business.

The Delhi assembly will debate and pass five bills that seek legislative approval to the hike in salary and allowances for Delhi ministers and MLAs in the two-day session that is going to begin on Monday, according to the list of business shared by the assembly secretariat.

The bills propose a 66.67% salary hike for Delhi lawmakers , who are among the lowest-paid legislators in India. (PTI)

Minister for law, justice and legislative affairs Kailash Gahlot is going to introduce five salary and allowances amendment bills in the assembly on Monday for hiking the salary and allowances of Delhi government ministers, speaker and deputy speaker, leader of opposition, chief whip and members of the House. The bills propose a 66.67% salary hike for Delhi lawmakers , who are among the lowest-paid legislators in India. If the bill is passed, lawmakers in Delhi will be paid ₹90,000 a month, up from the existing ₹54,000, an official in Delhi assembly said. The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA), in the first week of May, signed off on the increase, paving the way for the revision.

HT first reported on Thursday that the Delhi government was going to bring the bills in the assembly after LG gave his approval for the introduction of the bills in the House. According to the proposal, which has been reviewed by HT, the salary and allowances of chief minister and ministers, speaker, deputy speaker, chief whip and the leader of opposition will increase from the existing ₹72,000 to ₹170,000.

The session will begin with obituary references at 11am after which the MLAs will raise local issues and draw the attention of the government, according to the list of business. After this, Gahlot will introduce the five Bills including The ministers of the government of national capital territory of Delhi (salaries and allowances) (amendment) Bill, 2022, said a Delhi assembly official.

After the Bill is passed in the legislative assembly, it will be sent for the approval of the President. “The assembly secretariat will forward the Bill to the department of law, justice and legislative affairs of the Delhi government which will then forward it to the LG’s office from where it will be sent to the President through the Union ministry of home affairs,” said another assembly official who asked not to be named.

The Bill’s passage is a foregone conclusion since the Aam Aadmi Party has an absolute majority in the 70-member house with 62 MLAs belonging to the party.

In December 2015, the Delhi government proposed ₹2.10 lakh a month as salary and allowances for the MLAs, but the MHA did not agree with the proposal. In August 2021, the MHA approved an increase in salary and allowances of Delhi’s lawmakers to ₹90,000 a month, excluding reimbursements, a 66.67% increase, from the current ₹54,000.

According to an AAP leader, MLAs in Telangana have a salary of ₹2.5 lakh a month, those in Maharashtra ₹2.32 lakh, MLAs in Uttar Pradesh earn a salary of ₹1.87 lakh, in Jammu & Kashmir it is ₹1.6 lakh, in Uttarakhand it is ₹1.6 lakh, ₹1.3 lakh in Andhra Pradesh, ₹1.17 lakh in Goa.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has eight members in the House, has said that it will corner the government during the two-day session and seek discussion on various public matters of urgent importance, such as waterlogging and liquor shops being opened near residential areas.

Leader of the opposition Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said the BJP will “expose” the Delhi government in the assembly. “The AAP government has opposed the sanction given by the LG to probe (alleged) irregularities in the construction of seven temporary hospitals during the Covid pandemic. If they are so honest why are they afraid of a probe? A minister in the Kejriwal government has been in jail for more than a month. We will raise all these issues in the House,” said Bidhuri.

He added that the Arvind Kejriwal government has been running away from discussing the problems of the people. “People are badly affected by the problems of waterlogging, public transport, education, health, pollution and opening of liquor shops in the residential areas. This upcoming session also has been called only for two days, which not enough,” said Bidhuri.

The AAP did not respond to calls and texts sent to seek a comment.