TNI Bureau: Salary of Odisha MLAs and pension of former legislators likely to be hiked soon as Assembly Speaker Bikram Keshari Arukha today directed Parliamentary Affairs Minister Niranjan Pujari to present a bill in the House regarding the demand of hike in salary of MLAs and pension of former legislators.
Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra today raised the matter in the Assembly saying it was not known as to what decision the State Government took towards the salary hike despite submission of concerned reports.
The Speaker should direct the concerned Minister to present a bill in this connection, he said.
Taking a note of the Congress MLA’s statment, Speaker directed the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to present a bill in the House regarding the demand demand.C
Apart from daily allowances of Rs 1500 per day that they get when the assembly is in session and Rs 2000 per day when they visit outside the state besides travel reimbursement for attending sessions, the Odisha MLAs are getting around Rs one lakh per month, which includes Rs 35,000 salary and Rs 65000 in allowances.
Similarly, the former legislators are getting pension of Rs 30,000 each.
According to reports, the monthly remuneration of Odisha MLAs is 19th among Indian states. However, it is less than half of neighbouring Telangana (Rs 2.75 lakh), whose lawmakers are the best paid in the country.
MLAs of Maharashtra (Rs 2.30 lakh), Karnataka (2.05 lakh) and Jharkhand (Rs 2.05 lakh) also are getting a handsome salary.