Karnataka passes bills to hike salaries of chief minister, ministers, MLAs by 50%

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Feb 22, 2022: Karnataka today passed two Bills to raise the salaries and allowances of Chief Minister, Ministers and legislators. Faced with disruption for the fifth consecutive day, due to protests by Congress MLAs demanding the sacking of Minister KS Eshwarappa over his statement on the national flag, the session was cut short, but not before passing two bills without discussion.

 

The Karnataka Assembly session that began on February 14 was scheduled to conclude on February 25. It has now been adjourned till March 4 for the budget session.

Congress legislators have been staging "day-and-night" protests, spending the nights inside the Assembly, and staging demonstrations from the Well of the House during the day, disrupting proceedings, which Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has called "irresponsible".

But amid all the protests, the House managed to pass two bills - the Karnataka Ministers’ Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the Karnataka Legislature Salaries, Pensions and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2022 - and adopted the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address without any deliberations.

The state, while moving the Bills, said that they were long pending and cited a considerable increase in the cost of living. The hikes will result in a recurring, additional expenditure of nearly Rs 92.4 crore per year.

The Bill on the ministers’ salaries and allowances proposes to increase the Chief Minister’s salary from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 per month, the ministers’ salaries from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 per month, and the sumptuary allowance for both from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh per year.

It also proposes to increase the house rent allowance of ministers from Rs 80,000 per month to Rs 1.2 lakh, while allowances for maintenance and upkeep of residence and layout and for the maintenance of gardens have been increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 per month. The government will now foot expenses for 2,000 litres of fuel, up from the previous 1,000 litre limit.

The ministers’ per diem while on tours has been hiked to Rs 2,500 per day.

Meanwhile, the Bill on Legislature salaries, pensions and allowances, proposes to increase the monthly salary of the Legislative Assembly Speaker and Legislative Council Chairperson from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 and the monthly salary of the Leaders of the Opposition from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000.

It also proposes to enhance the salary of MLAs and MLCs from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 per month.

Sumptuary allowances for the Speaker and the Council Chairperson will go up from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per year.

All MLAs and MLCs will get Rs 60,000 each month as constituency travelling allowance, and will also get a monthly pension of Rs 50,000.

The bill also proposes to hike salaries and allowances of government and Opposition Chief Whips.

Placing the Bill for the consideration of the House, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy said, "Since 2015, the salaries and allowances of chief ministers, ministers, chairman, deputy chairman, Speaker, deputy Speaker have not been revised. Fuel rates have exponentially increased, medical allowance is low and house rents have increased. Considering all this, we have decided to increase half of the existing amounts in all these scales."

"In the same way, the salaries, allowances and TA/DA of legislators have also not been increased since 2015. Keeping that in mind, we have brought the Bill to increase it. Also, we have introduced a provision in the Bill to increase the salary and allowances once in five years based on the cost of living index like in the central government bill. So we need not introduce a bill for further hikes."

Amid protests by the Congress, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri allowed the tabling and passage of the two Bills and asked the CM to make the government’s reply on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.

Courtesy:India Today