Mixed bag for Bihar legislators

By Our Staff Correspondent

PATNA, APRIL 1. Members of both the Houses of the State Legislative are not sure whether they did themselves a favour or not in adopting a Bill that seeks to increase their pay and perks.

Undoubtedly the Bill, to amend the law relating to their emoluments, was introduced in haste as soon as the delayed approval was received from the Raj Bhawan. They draft Bill had been pending clearance with the Raj Bhawan for more than a couple of years and the Government was not sure that it would indeed be receiving the green signal even on the last day of the legislature session, which was adjourned sine die yesterday.

But no sooner the Government received the draft Bill, it went through the paces with double speed, accepting the numerous amendments proposed by the Governor, Mr. V. C. Pandey, to push it through both the Houses.

The grapevine had it that the legislators got their piece of cake thanks to the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. S. K. Modi's personal pleading with the Governor to approve the Bill pertaining to his pay packet, which had of late become a matter of controversy following allegations that he was drawing more than the legally approved sum.

The hike in the Leader of the Opposition's pay scales have been made with retrospective effect from April 1998. Members in the Upper House demanded action against him and the Accountant General for the alleged irregularity which Mr. Modi, of course has denied.

Interestingly, the Governor has not given his consent to the proposal to increase the salaries of the Presiding Officers of the two Houses and Ministers. Consequently, the Government failed to introduce the two concerned Bills yesterday.

The Governor struck down the proposal of the State Government to provide a personal assistant to each legislator, but as a compensation, permitted a monthly entertainment allowance of Rs. 1,500, besides hiking their salary from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 4,000 and doubling their postal and stationery allowance to Rs. 2,000.

There is no hike in the medical and constituency allowances which remain unaltered at Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 2,500 per month, whereas the token housing and vehicle allowances of Rs. 50 and Rs. 300 have been abandoned.

The Government has also raised the pension of former MLAs. Thus the benefit accruing to 179 MLAs, 62 MLCs, 744 former legislators and 177 spouses of deceased legislators, would entail an additional burden of about Rs. 24.81 lakhs annually on the exchequer.

On the flip side, the legislators would no longer be entitled to tour allowances, be it within or outside the State. Instead, the Government has enhanced their daily allowance to Rs. 500 during tours within the State and Rs. 1,000 on study trips to other States.

Most legislators were upset over the modification in this regard as they could no longer avail the taxi allowance that they were permitted at the rate of Rs. 5 per km for a maximum travel of 250 km. Moreover they were also against the curtailment on the duration of trips to 20 days inside the State and 15 days outside it.

They see a major loss, having to forego these trips and most of them were downcast that the increase in their salaries did not adequately compensate the losses.

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