If the Assembly of Telangana state were to approve the recommendations of the Committee on Amenities, the legislators of Telangana would become highest-paid public servants in India.
The committee, headed by speaker himself, today reportedly finalized the recommendations to be placed before the Assembly soon. There has been a proposal mooted by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao himself to raise the emoluments of MLAs and MLCs. From day one, since the formation of Telangana state, CM has been telling that the salaries of the members of Assembly and Council would be increased to a decent level. The matter was finally referred to the committee which finalized today its recommendations.
As per the information available, now the committee is said to have recommended that the salary of a legislators be raised from Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh per month. Similarly, the loan provision for the purchase of a car be hiked from the present Rs 15 lakh to Rs 40 lakh. As for pension, the committee recommended a pension of Rs 65,000 per month and PA allowance Rs 25,000.
The committee also recommended that the pension of deceased MLA be extended to the wife also. The committee felt need to extend medical facilities to legislators both serving and retired without any upper limit.
In recent past, It was the AAP government of Delhi that had set the trend of increasing the wages of legislators in an unusual way. In December 2015, Delhi Assembly approved a 400 per cent hike for MLAs and ministers by passing members’ salaries, Allowances and Pensions bill. The bill sought to hike the monthly package of MLAs from Rs 88,000 to Rs. 2.10 lakh.
The Telangana committee on Amenities is constituted under Rule 265 of rules of procedures and conduct of business of in Telangana Legislative Assembly. A joint committee of Assembly and Council, the committee on amenities is headed by speaker, Madhusudanachary. The members of the committee are , Etala Rajendera (finance minister), T Harish Rao (irrigation minister), Koppula Eshwar, Dr G Chinna Reddy, E Dayakar Rao, Akbaruddin Owaisi, Chintala Ramachandra Rao, Paturi Sudhakar Reddy, Katepalli Janardhan Reddy, T Santosh Kumar, and A Narsa Reddy. In today;s meeting Council chairman Swami Goud was also present.