Hry Assembly passes Bill to rationalise pension and allowances of ex-MLAs

The Haryana Assembly today unanimously passed a Bill to rationalize the pension and allowances of former members of the state Legislative Assembly.

The Haryana Legislative Assembly (Salary, Allowances and Pension of Members) Amendment Bill, 2018, was passed by the House on the concluding day of the budget session.

Speaking before the Bill was passed, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the wrongs done by the previous regimes while fixing their pension and dearness allowance at the cost of public money, had been set right.

"It appears they were rewarding themselves only," he added.

He said that as per the amendment, a member who completed first term after January 1, 2016 and became a pensioner would be entitled to draw Rs 50,000 per month as pension for his first term, and Rs 2,000 for each year or part thereof subsequent to the first term.

The ex-MLA would be entitled to dearness relief at the rates prescribed by government from time to time for the state government's post-2016 pensioners.

At present, former MLAs of the state are being given a pension of Rs 50,000 per month with effect from October 1, 2013 plus Rs 1,500 for each additional year, subsequent to first term, and 50 per cent as dearness pension.

In spite of revision of pension four times after January 1, 1996, they were drawing dearness relief at the rate of 245 per cent on the emoluments that is equal to the rate of dearness relief which would have been admissible to the state government pensioners had their pension not been revised after January 1, 1996.

While a one-time MLAs gets nearly Rs 50,000 as pension, two-time MLAs receive Rs 90,000 and those elected four or five times get Rs 2 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh, respectively.

The former MLAs would now be entitled to draw either dearness relief (fixed) or dearness relief at the rates prescribed by the government from time to time for their post-2016 pensioners, whichever is higher, according to the legislation.

The ex-MLAs would be allowed the facility of special travelling allowance of up to Rs 10,000 per month provided their monthly pension plus dearness relief does not exceed Rs 1 lakh, according to the legislation.