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| Wahmantri! | | Govt doubles salary of legislators from Rs 80K to Rs 160K | | No money for widows, orphans, old age, handicapped
Asif Iqbal Naik
Early Times Report
Srinagar, June 30: The PDP-BJP government led by Chief Minister Mehbooba, on the last day of the month long budget session of assembly, announced pay hike for MLAs and MLCsand ministers while the pensionof former legislators was hiked from Rs28000 to Rs50000. The increase in salaries and pensions of legislators will put an overall burden of Rs20 crore on the exchequer.
The House unanimously passed the amended J&K State Legislature Act 1960 and J&K Ministers and Ministers of State Salaries Act 1956.
Interestingly, National Conference, Congress and most of the Independents except Independent MLA Engineer Sheikh Abdul Rashid walked out and boycotted the proceedings when the twin amendments in bills pertaining to salaries of the legislators came up and the amendment in the laws were passed by the treasury benches in absence of opposition.
Under the new law, the salary of an MLA and MLCwill be doubled from Rs. 80000 per month to Rs 160,000.
Chief Minister who was withdrawing a salary of Rs. 45000 a month will now get Rs. 70000 which is in addition to the existing salaries. Similarly a cabinet minister was drawing Rs. 40000 of salary and now he is entitled to Rs. 65000 extra salary while Ministers of State, usually referred to as junior ministers were drawing Rs. 35000 a month but now they will get Rs, 60000 extra on overall salary.
While in a separate amendment in J&K State legislature members' pension bill 2016, the government hiked the monthly pension of retired MLAs/MLCs from Rs.28000 to Rs. 50000. Besides, their monthly medical allowance was increased to Rs. 5000. But on the suggestion of Deputy Speaker Nazir Khan Gurezi, Finance Minister Dr Haseeb A Drabu agreed to take it to Rs 10,000 per month by issuing an SRO which will be later issued through an ordinance by the state cabinet.
Hike in their packages was one of the key demands that transcended the party lines. Mufti Sayeed government in its last term had decided to create an institutional mechanism that would help in hiking the packages as and when required. They had proposed setting up a committee of legislators and top officers that would sit once in five years to take a call on the pay hikes of the legislators and the ministers.
Earlier Chief Minister Mehbooba government had taken a different course with regard to the pay hike of the Legislators by creating a house committee under the chairmanship of NC legislator Ali Mohammad Sagar, but Sagar, however resigned at the last moment.
When the issue was finally taken up by about 52 MLAs with the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Minister intervened and announced doubling the salary.
The government said that hike in salary of members including ministers would cost public exchequer Rs 12 crore a year. For increase in pension, the yearly costs were put at Rs 8 crore a year.
J&K has a bicameral legislature with the lower house having 87 members and two nominated members. The Legislative Council has 32 berths but in last three decades it rarely has it functioned with full capacity.
It is pertinent to mention that in reply to two different RTIs of Balvinder Singh, Convener Sangarsh RTI Movement reveals that most of the widows of the state are abundant from their houses, they have no places to go and unable to maintain themselves and the paltry amount these unfortunates receive from the state government as the widow pension is nothing short of a cruel joke which the state government making of these widows and moreover this meager amount which is the only source of income is often irregular.
RTI reveals that the monthly salaries of the MLAs and MLCs in Jammu and Kashmir was Rs. 17000 in 2002, Rs. 40,000 in 2006 and raised more than double in 2009. Whereas the pension of a widow, divorcee and old age people receive from the state social welfare department is just Rs. 200/month which was last revised in 2003 only when the monthly pension was Rs. 175 only. In these last ten years from 2003 to till date the pension has not been revised even after the rising graph of inflation, the political class of the state has remained totally insensitive to the miseries of the poor and helpless people. |
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