Bengaluru : The Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Tuesday passed bills enhancing salaries and allowances of Chief Minister, Ministers and legislators.
Faced by disruption for the fifth consecutive day, due to protest by Congress MLAs, demanding resignation of Minister KS Eshwarappa over his statement on the national flag, the session was cut short, but not before passing two bills without discussion.
Amidst the din, the House passed the 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 Governor’s address, without any discussion.
The bill on Ministers salaries and allowances proposes to increase is as below
- Monthly salary of the Chief Minister has been hiked to Rs 75,000 from Rs 50,000.
- Ministers salary from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000, and sumptuary allowance for both increased from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4.50 lakh per annum.
- House rent allowance of Ministers from Rs 80,000 per month to Rs 1.20 lakh, while allowance for maintenance and upkeep of residence and layout and maintenance of gardens has been increased from Rs 20,000 per month to Rs 30,000.
- Ministers official vehicle fuel capacity increased to 2000 litres per month from 1000 litre.
- Ministers’ tour allowance per day has been hiked to Rs 2,500.
- Salary of the Legislative Assembly Speaker and Legislative Council Chairperson hiked from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000.
- Salary of the Leaders of the Opposition has been increased from Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000.
- Salary of MLAs and MLCs increased from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000.
- Sumptuary allowance for Speaker and the Council Chairperson will go up from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per annum.
- MLAs and MLCs will get Rs 60,000 every month as constituency travelling allowance, and also get a pension of Rs 50,000 per month if their respective house complete full term (Five Year).
The bill also proposes salary and allowances of Government and Opposition Chief Whips.
Placing the bill for the consideration of the House, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said, “from 2015 the salaries and allowances of Chief Minister, Ministers, Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Speaker, Deputy Speaker were not revised, diesel and petrol rate have exponentially increased, medical allowance is low and house rent has increased. Considering all this, we have decided to increase the half of the existing amount in all these scales.”
He said, “In the same way salary, allowance and TA/DA of legislators have also not been increased since 2015, keeping it in mind, we have brought the bill to increase it.
The session that began on February 14 was actually scheduled to conclude on February 25. It has now been adjourned till March 4, for the budget session.
