Mamata announces big salary hike for Bengal ministers, MLAs

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced a big hike in the salaries of cabinet ministers, ministers of state and legislators with the monthly salary being raised by Rs 40,000 a month for each of these three categories.

Following this hike, the legislators will now be entitled to a monthly salary of Rs 50,000 a month, as against the existing amount of Rs 10,000. The monthly salaries of the ministers of the state have been increased from Rs 10,900 to Rs 50,900. In case of cabinet ministers, the amount has been increased from Rs 11,000 to Rs 51,000.

The other additional perks and allowances that cabinet ministers, ministers of state and legislators are entitled to in addition to monthly salaries will remain the same.

This will ideally mean that with the actual monthly payment received by the legislators including the salaries, allowances and perks will now increase to Rs 1.21 lakh from the current rate of Rs 81,000 a month, explained an officer of the state government.

Similarly, the actual monthly payment received by ministers from now onwards will be increased from Rs 1.10 lakh a month to around RS 1.50 lakh per month.

Announcing the enhanced pay at the state Assembly on Thursday after, the chief minister said that the decision to hike the salaries had been taken in view of the fact that the salaries of the legislators in West Bengal had been much lower compared to their counterparts in other Indian states.

However, political observers feel that these enhanced salaries for the minister and MLAs are bound to agitate further the state government employees, who have been long demanding enhanced dearness allowances to be made at par with Central government employees and the arrears accrued on it.