Three times hike; MLAs to draw monthly salary of Rs 3.45 lakh, bill passed

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has hiked the salary of MLAs up to more than three times the current package. They will get a salary of Rs 3.45 lakhs from the present salary of Rs 1.11 lakh. The increment has been approved with retroactive effect from June 2024, said Dr Mukesh Mahaling, minister of parliamentary affairs. The legislative assembly has unanimously passed four bills with immediate effect.
The salary of the chief minister, speaker, deputy speaker and opposition leader and the pension of former MLAs also increased to three times. The bill includes conditions to provide a monetary aid of Rs 25 lakhs to the family if a sitting MLA dies, and increase the allowances and pensions. The present salary of the MLAs, including their allowances is Rs 1.11 lakhs. It will be Rs 3.25 lakhs. The BJP government implemented the hike which the members had been requesting since 2007.
The MLAs will be getting Rs 90,000 as salary, Rs 75,000 as constituency allowance, Rs 10,000 as book allowance, Rs 50,000 as travel allowance, Rs 20,000 as electricity allowance, Rs 35,000 as medical allowance and Rs 15,000 as telephone allowance. Apart from this, former MLAs will get Rs 1.17 lakhs as pension. Those who were MLAs more than once will get an additional of Rs 3000 each time.
The chief minister will get Rs 3.74 lakhs, assembly speaker and deputy chief minister will get Rs 3.68 lakhs and the deputy speaker and deputy minister will get Rs 3.56 lakhs per month. The opposition leader, cabinet ministers and government chief whip will get Rs 3.62 lakhs and the deputy chief whip will get Rs 3.5 lakhs as salary.