The Himachal Pradesh Assembly on Friday passed three amendment Bills to enable a sharp increase in the allowances of legislators, ministers and former legislators. The proposed hike would put an additional annual burden of approximately Rs3.5 crore on the state exchequer. The amendment bills were introduced by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, and passed within a few minutes with a voice vote and without discussion by the treasury and opposition benches.
As per the Himachal Pradesh legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pensions of members) Amendment Bill of 2015, the daily allowance of members of the assembly has been increased from Rs1,000 to Rs.1,500. likewise, the limit for reimbursement of expenses incurred on free travel facility has been increased from Rs75,000 to Rs200,000. Also each member would be entitled to an allowance of Rs12,000 per month to engage a computer operator.
For ex-members of the assembly, the limit for reimbursement of expenses incurred on free travel facility would be Rs100,000 instead of the railway tariff of 20,000 km per annum. For the ministers, the speaker and the deputy speaker, the limit for reimbursement of expenses incurred on free travel facility would be Rs200,000 instead of the railway tariff of 100,000 km. The Chief Minister said due to the sharp increase in the cost of living the members have to incur a lot of extra expenditure.