In another bonanza for J&K lawmakers, the state government Thursday introduced a bill in the Legislative Assembly to double their sitting allowance.
The salaries and allowances of members of the Jammu and Kashmir state legislature (amendment) bill 2018 proposes 100 percent hike in their allowance which will take it to Rs 2000 per day.
This is the second time in the past five years when sitting allowance of MLAs/MLCs is being enhanced. The last such revision was carried out by the government in 2013.
According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, the government has decided to increase the allowance from Rs 1000 to Rs 2000 following the demand by legislators. The Act was amended in 2013 to increase the daily allowance of the members of state legislature from Rs 500 to Rs 1000 per day, it states.
Nearly two months ago, the government enhanced their travelling allowance to Rs 1.5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh.
Similarly, the motor car loan was increased to Rs 10 lakh from the existing Rs 5 lakh. On the same analogy, the housing loan limit was raised to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 5 lakh.
From hiking salary to increasing constituency development fund (CDF) and gifting high-end iPads, the three-year rule of the PDP-BJP government has been a windfall for the legislators.
The J&K legislature has a total strength of 125 members — 89 members in Assembly and 36 in the Council.
In June 2016, the government doubled the salaries of sitting legislators from Rs 80,000 to Rs 1,60,000. Earlier this year, the CDF of lawmakers was raised to Rs three crore from the existing Rs 1.5 crore, putting an additional burden of Rs 187 crore on the state exchequer annually.
The government has been generous towards the legislators even though the state’s financial position is not so rosy.