Uttarakhand govt to slash 30% salaries of MLAs

After the ruling-BJP in Uttarakhand faced the onslaught from Congress that the saffron party lawmakers are contributing less than 30 per cent of the salary to tackle the Covid-19 crisis, the cabinet passed an ordinance which makes mandatory to contribute 30 per cent of their salaries for the pandemic fund.

Dehradun: The Uttarakhand cabinet approved a special ordinance to implement a 30 per cent salary deduction of legislators in view of the coronavirus outbreak. The development comes after Congress launched an attack that BJP lawmakers are not abiding by the laws of the state government to contribute Rs 57,600 per month to fight against COVID-19

The state cabinet in April decided to slash 30% salary of all the lawmakers for this financial year to use the deducted amount for the management of pandemic. The decision was taken as the state was facing the brunt of the deepening economic crisis triggered by the raging coronavirus outbreak.

Despite the suggestion of Rajya Sabha MLA PremChandra Agarwal, only a few BJP leaders were following the govt's instructions, hence prompting the state govt to bring the Uttarakhand State Legislative Assembly (Members Emoluments and Pension) Ordinance. The ruling BJP govt was facing backlash from the opposition Congress that many legislators of the saffron party had been contributing less than 30 per cent of their salary.

If sources are to be believed, the BJP govt had decided to bring the ordinance following the charges from Congress that BJP MLAs are contributing less than 30% of their salaries.

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After the Cabinet meeting, government spokesperson and state urban development minister Madan Kaushik said, "A confusion was brewing among the leaders that MLAs were giving less amount for the Covid-19 fund. But now the ordinance has been passed and all Assembly members will give an equal amount of 30 per cent of their salaries till March 31, 2021. The amount would be invested in the state-owned Covid-19 fund. The ordinance came in effect from April 1, 2020 and will go on till next financial year ends."

Each MLA gets a monthly salary of Rs 2.04 lakh and after 30% slash, he/she would be entitled to pay Rs 57,600 per for Covid fund. The monthly pay of legislator also includes basic salary, constituency allowance, secretarial and driver allowances.

Apart from this, the Uttarakhand cabinet also approved a proposal for the increment of the servant and ministerial allowances of retired Chief Justices and retired judges of state High Court.