Meghalaya Assembly passes bill to double MLAs' salaries

The salary of an MLA of Meghalaya was doubled while that of the Chief Minister was hiked 70 per cent after the Assembly passed bills to hike their salary and allowances and pension of former members.
The Meghalaya Legislators Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2017, shall come into force from January 1 this year, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Martin M Dangngo said.
According to the bill, the gross salary of the chief minister will now be Rs 1.09 lakh per month from the current Rs 64,000 and that of his deputy will be Rs 1.07 lakh from Rs 63,600.
The Leader of Opposition's salary will be Rs 1.07 lakh from the current Rs 63,200 while the other members of the Assembly will be drawing a monthly salary of Rs 60,000 from the existing Rs 30,000.

The salaries and allowances of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker will also be hiked from Rs 63,600 and Rs 62,750 to Rs 1.08 lakh and Rs 1.06 lakh respectively.
For the cabinet ministers who were drawing a monthly salary of Rs 63,200 till now, their proposed gross salary is Rs 1.07 lakh while that of the parliamentary secretaries will be Rs 1.06 lakh from Rs 62,500.
The Assembly also passed the Meghalaya (Members' Pension) (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which proposed to hike the pension of former legislators to Rs 30,000 from the current Rs 17,000 and an additional amount of Rs 5000 medical expenses allowance.