U'khand MLAs to get pay hike

After the 6th Pay Commission brought cheers to the state government employees last year, it is now the turn of the MLAs to get a substantial pay hike in Uttarakhand.

The state government is planning to bring a Bill in the coming session of the Vidhan Sabha beginning December 21 to give pay hike to all the 71 legislators in the hill state. “We will bring the Bill regarding the pay hike for our MLAs in the coming session,” said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant. The MLAs are expecting 40 to 50 per cent of pay hike. Currently, each MLA gets a monthly salary including various incentives around Rs 52,000. After the proposed hike, the salary was likely to increase by 30 percent, Pant said.

The move follows a report by a legislative committee headed by Anil Nautiyal, which called for 40 per cent pay hike for the legislators recently. The committee had given the report early this year. But after a change of guard in June this year, the onus fell on Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank to placate the legislators with the pay hike.

The hike is expected to put an extra burden of Rs 2-3 crore per year on the state exchequer, which is already reeling under the pressure of the pay commission and the ballooning debt. According to an estimate, the pay commission has put a burden of Rs 3,000-4,000 crore and the state debt his over Rs 16,000 crores.