Sheila Dikshit

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and her Cabinet colleagues along with the MLAs have got themselves a Diwali bonanza in the shape of a massive salary raise. The Centre has approved ofthe Delhi Government's proposal to raise the salaries and a Bill in this regard will be introduced in the State Assembly shortly.

Bowing to the long pending demand of the elected representatives, the Central Government finally gave its nod for the salary hike after having rejected the proposal on technical grounds a few months ago.

The hike comes with several sops for the Chief Minister and her ministerial colleagues in the shape of free water and power. While the Chief Minister now will be entitled to 5,000 units of free power every month, the Ministers will get 3,000 power units free in addition to free water.

Under the new regime, the Chief Minister will draw a salary of Rs.39,000 against Rs.27,000 earlier. The Ministers will draw Rs.37,000 per month against Rs.24,000 at present.

The MLAs will take home a Rs.34,000 monthly pay packet, more than double their present pay of Rs.16,500. The MLAs had been pressing for a salary hike for the last two years pleading that cost of living and constituency maintenance costs had gone up.

For the MLAs, the basic salary would be hiked from Rs.3,000 to Rs.6,000. The daily allowance would be increased from Rs.400 to Rs.500 and the constituency allowance from Rs.6,000 to Rs.8,000.

The conveyance allowance would be up sharply from Rs.500 to Rs.4,000 while the secretariat allowance would be hiked from Rs.7,000 to Rs.10,000.

The MLAs will now be entitled to 4,000 free phone calls instead of 2,000 at present.

The travel allowance per year for the legislators has also been hiked from Rs.25,000 to Rs.35,000.

The salary hike file had been pending with the Union Home Ministry for more than a year after the Delhi Government forwarded the proposal.

A committee headed by Finance Minister A. K. Walia and comprising Badarpur MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Congress MLA Anil Bharwaj had recommended the hike pleading that the salary structure for the elected representatives in Delhi was far below what was prevalent in other States.

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