HP Assembly adjourns after okaying hike in MLAs' allowances

Himachal Pradesh Assembly today adjourned sine die after passing bills to provide hike in allowances of ministers, legislators, speaker and deputy speaker.
The 31-day budget session had 22 sittings and besides the general budget, motion of thanks on Governor's address, eight legislations including the sports bodies' regulation and Town and Country Planning (Amendment) bills were passed during the session.
The proposals for hike in allowances of ministers, members and speaker and deputy speaker would entail annual recurring expenditure of Rs 3.5 crore.
The bills were introduced by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh after the question hour and were passed without any discussion.

The daily allowance of the members has been raised from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500, reimbursement limit of free travel facility from Rs 75,000 to Rs 2 lakh and an additional allowance of Rs 12,000 to members for engaging a computer operator.
The limit of reimbursement of travel expenses for former MLAs would be raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 1 lakh while in case of ministers, the travel facility reimbursement limit would be raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.
The chief minister said that hike in allowances was necessitated due to sharp increase in the cost of living as the members of the assembly have to incur a lot of expenditure in their day-to-day activities.

The Budget session was stormy and BJP members staged walkouts on several occasions including one against the Speaker.