Undeterred by a huge debt burden adding to the financial woes of Telangana, the State legislators are in for a whopping 400% hike in their salaries.
The amenities committee of Telangana legislature headed by the Speaker Madhusudhan Chary has recommended the monthly salary of MlAS and MlCs from Rs1.25 lakh to Rs3.5 lakhs.
The committee meeting on Monday, attended by legislative Council Chairman Swami Goud, Finance Minister Etala Rajender, Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and the floor leaders of different parties, also recommended many other sops for the members and the Ministers. They include increasing the vehicle loan for each member from Rs15 lakh to Rs40 lakhs, hiking the monthly salary of member’s PA to Rs25,000, and monthly pension for the ex-MlAs and ex-MlCs from Rs50,000 to Rs65,000. Even after the death of the former member his or her spouse will continue to benefit from the pension if the recommendations of the committee were accepted.
Committee also recommended unlimited medical assistance to the former members of both the Houses. If all these decisions were implemented they will put additional burden of Rs100 crore on the ex-chequer, officials said.
This was coming at a time when the state debt burden has reached a mammoth Rs1.3 lakh crore, equivalent to the annual budget of the State and the TRS government was still exploring the avenue for raising more loans for its welfare programs including free two-bed room housing scheme for the poor. As budget has not provided a single rupee for housing and other schemes, the government need to raise Rs52,000 crore loans to implements the.
While the proposed hike in the pay of the legislators was coming under criticism from various quarters, the State Government has defended it. Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali said that the demand was pending for a long time and it can not be ignored.
Interestingly the Chief Minister K Chandrsekhar Rao has equipped himself with a special development fund of Rs4,765 crore and each of his 18 Ministers has also got another Rs25 crore as special fund.
Speculations were rife that the Government will have dip into the fresh borrowings to meet the additional burden of Rs100 crore towards the hike in the salary and other sops of the legislators.