Bihar cabinet okays 30% hike in pay & perks of ministers

Salary of the state and deputy ministers have been raised to ₹65,000 and ₹70,000 from the existing ₹50,000 and ₹55,000 respectively.

The state cabinet on Tuesday approved a substantial hike, around 30%, in pay and perks of the state and deputy ministers. Political nominees posted as the chairmen and the deputy chairmen in various boards and corporations would benefit from the hike.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar with deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary at Bihar Assembly in Patna on Monday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

This was one of the 27 items in agenda, which the cabinet chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar, gave its nod after formal discussion with ministers of the concerned departments.

Briefing news persons after the meeting, additional chief secretary (cabinet) S Siddharth said that salary of the state and deputy ministers have been raised to ₹65,000 and ₹70,000 from the existing ₹50,000 and ₹55,000 respectively. Besides, they would be getting a daily allowance of ₹3,500 instead of ₹3,000. Additionally, they will be getting hospitality allowances of at least ₹29,000 and ₹29,500 respectively.

Officials said that pay and perks of the state and deputy ministers were revised last in 2019. It is also believed that the exercise to fill up the posts of chairmen and deputy chairmen in over three dozen boards and corporations would be initiated soon.

In another major decision to tone up the delivery system, the cabinet okayed the formation of three directorates under the state health department. The new directorates to come up are the public health directorate, medical education directorate and the health services directorate. Accordingly, the state government also approved the department’s proposal to create 20,016 additional posts to operationalise the directorates at the earliest.

Siddharth said that about 7,000 additional posts have been created in other departments, including the education department. There will be one assistant education development officer for every 10 panchayats. New appointments will be made for this. They will be responsible for school inspection in the blocks.