MLAs sneak in and pass Rs.40,000 monthly pension bill!
Last Friday (August 2), which was the final day of the monsoon session, a certain bill was put up on agenda. Being the last day, the agenda was packed with calling attention motions, debates, various official bills and non-official business. All eyes were set on the Adarsh Report. In this melee, the bill was sanctioned within minutes without debate. In less than two minutes, Maharashtra’s MLAs had voted in a massive pension hike for themselves.
A state legislator will now get an amount of Rs.40,000 per month as pension after his term expires, according to the bill, up from Rs.25,000 per month. The bill also states that this amount will be paid to the families of deceased members of the state legislature. The only opposition was from the Finance Department and this was ignored even by the state Cabinet! Since it was an all party affair in the House, the bill got a nod within minutes.
A total of 822 former members of the State Assembly and the State Council and 750 dependant family members of deceased legislators will be benefited by this new decision. This will put a burden of Rs.30 crore annually on the state. Maharashtra will be the first state to sanction this hefty amount as pension to its formers legislators, a sum that is almost double the pension of a Member of Parliament (MP), who gets Rs.20,000 per month.
The bill has created a flutter in the corridors of the Mantralaya. At present, the state is reeling under a debt of Rs.4,000 crore. Earlier, only former legislators were entitled to pension.
The neighboring state of Gujarat does not have any such scheme of pension for its former legislators. Other states which give pension to former MLAs and family pension to their kin are: Haryana (Rs.13,750+DA), Madhya Pradesh (Rs.7,000+300), Chhatisgarh (Rs.16,000) along with Rs.1, 000 as family pension, Tamil Nadu (Rs.12,000) of which 50 per cent is paid as family pension, Himachal Pradesh (Rs.18,000) of which 50 per cent is paid as family pension, Rajasthan (Rs.7,500) along with Rs.2,500 as family pension and Karnataka (Rs.26,000) of which 50 per cent is paid as family pension. In Maharashtra, by contrast, the remuneration is princely!