LAWMAKERS in Maharashtra are set for a fresh set of perks with the Bharatiya Janata Party government on Tuesday permitting them to tap local area development funds for purchase of IPads and laptops once during their five-year term.
Further, Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said, the government had taken up a proposal to enhance salaries of personal assistants (PAs) to the members of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council from July. The proposal, said Mungantiwar, was to raise the salaries from Rs 15,000 per month to Rs 25,000 — a 67 per cent hike.
“They draw very little salary at present. It is just Rs 500 a day. A delegation representing all such PAs had met me recently to highlight that the current pay was inadequate. They do not get any allowances too. We are considering to increase the salary to Rs 25,000 per month,” said Mungantiwar. Maharashtra has 288 MLAs and 78 MLCs.
The government will also incur an additional expenditure of Rs 10,000 per lawmaker for amount spent by them towards data entry operations.
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The finance minister admitted that both these heads would together burden the state exchequer Rs 7.32 crore more per year.
“A bill will be tabled in the state legislature for approval of these expenditures,” Mungantiwar added.
The state government has convened a special meeting with MLAs and MLCs Tuesday evening over utilisation of local area development funds, and their personal perks and emoluments.
A section of participating legislators, including those from the ruling alliance, even pitched for an increase in salaries of legislators. While a legislator draws Rs 75,000 a month in salaries, perks, and emoluments, these lawmakers demanded that this be increased to at least Rs 1 lakh. The government, however, said the demand “did not seem appropriate” amid the severe drought prevailing in the state, leaving these MLAs disgruntled.
The government also showered some indirect perks. As a special case, the government has decided to dilute e-tendering norms for works recommended by a legislator under the local area development funds. While the norm is that all works above Rs 3 lakh must be awarded after floating e-tenders, the government has decided to relax this to Rs 10 lakh for local area development works taken up by legislators.
“There was often a delay in executing the works due to procedural delays under e-tendering. The relaxation is welcome as it will help expedite work in our constituencies,” said Congress MLA Amin Patel. BJP’s Ashish Shelar echoed his viewpoint.
Mungantiwar said the relaxation would be issued as a ‘special case’ since works recommended by legislators were often urgent in nature.
The state government had adopted the e-tendering norm following complaints of graft and lack of transparency in contracts allotted.
“We have also decided to raise spending limit on one work recommended under local area development from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 25 lakh considering the price rise and the increase in rates of construction material,” Mungantiwar said. The government has also increased the nature of works that can be recommended by a legislator. “The MLAs and MLCs had complained that they were unable to take up work that an MP can recommend under MPLADs. We have decided to do away with this disparity. Only donations to a private trust, which can be taken up under MPLAD, won’t be permitted,” he added. The government has also directed officials to approve works recommended by legislators within 45 days of application.
Mungantiwar, meanwhile, said the proposal to permit purchase of iPads and laptops would improve the quality of legislative work and result in savings on paper files in the near future. “The lawmakers are already permitted a desktop or a computer for office work once in five years. We decided to permit ipads and laptops to allow legislators access to his office while commuting from one point to another,” Mungantiwar said. “The plan in the medium term is to switch to online distribution of legislative documents thus resulting in saving of money on paper, which would also benefit the environment,” he reasoned. With some of the lawmakers not well versed with information technology, a proposal to hold a training workshop is also being considered.
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No hike for MLAs, MLCs due to Maharashtra drought: Lawmakers to get iPads, 67% hike in PAs’ salaries
Source: Indian Express