By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : A bill for increasing the pay and perks of legislators and pension of former members was presented Tuesday in the Kerala assembly by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
The bill, based on the recommendations of the Justice (Retd) Rajendra Babu Commission, was sent to the committee concerned and will come back to the house on Thursday, when it would finally get the nod. The panel’s report was submitted to assembly Speaker G. Karthikeyan in October.
According to the report, the 141 legislators will soon see the near-doubling of their pay, from the present Rs.20,300 to a recommended Rs.40,250 per month.
Kerala legislators will, however, continue to be lowly paid as compared to their counterparts in Punjab, Delhi, and Andhra Pradesh, who all get a salary of more than Rs.50,000.
The recommendations also include hiking the monthly allowance from Rs.300 to Rs.8,500, and the constituency allowance will go up from Rs.5,000 to Rs.6,500.
A sum of Rs.6,500 has been included as driver-allowance for the first time besides an information allowance of Rs.1,000. The office expenses have been raised to Rs.7,500.
The last revision took place in 2008.