The Rajasthan government introduced a bill in the assembly on Friday to increase the family pension of former legislators and sumptuary allowance of the deputy government chief whip. Eight other bills were also introduced on which discussions are likely to be held on Monday.
According to the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly (Officers and Members Emoluments and Pension) (Amendment) Bill, 2020, family pension of ₹17,500 or equal to 50% of the last drawn pension, whichever is higher, shall be paid to the family of a former MLA. The bill said the spouse of a deceased ex-member shall be paid the whole amount of any arrear of the family pension and if the spouse is not alive, the amount of arrear shall be paid in equal shares to the members of the family. For the bill, family means the sons and unmarried daughters and such parents of the deceased ex-member who were wholly or mainly dependent on him or her at the time of his or her death.
The statement of objects and reasons of the bill said the family pension payable to the spouse of the deceased ex-member appears to be inadequate in view of price rise.
{{/usCountry}}The statement of objects and reasons of the bill said the family pension payable to the spouse of the deceased ex-member appears to be inadequate in view of price rise.
{{/usCountry}}The bill also proposes to increase the sumptuary allowance of deputy government chief whip to ₹80,000 per mensem (every month) from ₹70,000.
“It has been decided that the sumptuary allowance payable to the deputy government chief whip should be at par with the sumptuary allowance payable to the state minister,” the statement said.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, the state government decided that it needed to take prevention and remedial measures and promulgated the Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020, on May 1 with more effective and stringent measures than those in the existing the Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases Act, 1957. An amendment to this was brought on May 22 through the Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020. The Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases Bill, 2020, has been introduced to replace the two ordinances.
The third bill – the Rajasthan Police (Amendment) Bill, 2020 – is for village guards in rural areas. The bill seeks to amend the minimum age of these people from 30 years to 40 years, and reduce the tenure of village guards from 3 years to 2 years. The bill also proposes to add the duty of assisting the police in patrolling to the existing duties and responsibilities. The village guards will be honorary workers. The government promulgated an ordinance for this on July 4 and the bill seeks to replace that.
The government has also introduced the Rajasthan Excise (Amendment) Bill, 2020, to introduce a surcharge for mitigating natural or manmade calamities. This surcharge shall be charged on any excisable article at such rate not exceeding 50% of the duty for mitigating natural or man-made calamities such as drought, flood, epidemic, public health exigencies and fire.