An independent committee has recommended a four-fold increase in the salary of Delhi legislators from Rs 12,000 to Rs 50,000.
If approved by the government, Delhi MLAs will become the richest elected representatives in the assembly in the country.
The panel consisting of a journalist, a jurist and a former secretary general of Lok Sabha has also recommended hike in constituency allowance from Rs 18,000 to Rs 50,000 and conveyance allowance from Rs 6,000 to Rs 30,000.
According to the recommendations, the total emoluments will increase from Rs 88,000 to Rs 2.10 lakh.
Delhi assembly speaker on 21 August had constituted a committee of experts to recommend revisions in the salary and allowances for MLAs. This was the first instance in independent India where elected members voluntarily had given up their constitutional and statutory privilege.
In 2005, the then speaker of the Lok Sabha, Somnath Chatterjee, had managed to persuade the MPs from across various political parties to agree that the practice of MPs deciding their own salary and allowances would be done away with. They had agreed to form an independent commission to review the elected representatives’ salaries and allowancea. However, even after a decade, the proposed commission coukd never be set up and governments secured pay hikes for MPs through the old procedure in 2006 and 2010.