With the West Bengal Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2017 being passed in the state Assembly today, salaries and allowances of ministers in West Bengal have been enhanced to more than double.
State Parliamentary Affairs minister Partha Chatterjee, who moved the bill in the House, said it was necessary to amend the West Bengal Salaries and Allowances Act, 1952 to give effect to the hike in the salaries and other allowances of the Chief Minister and other ministers.
The Speaker, Deputy Speaker and the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly would also get the benefit out of the amendment bill, he said.
The bill said salaries and allowances of ministers in the state would be enhanced from Rs 36,800 at present to Rs 81,300.
Simultaneously another bill was also passed in the Assembly today to give effect to a hike in the salary of MLAs who were not ministers, from Rs 5,000 per month to Rs 10,000 per month.
The Bengal Legislative Assembly (Members' Emoluments) (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed to amend the Bengal Legislative Assembly (Members' Emoluments) Act, 1937.
The hikes would be effective from April 1, 2017, Chatterjee said.
The opposition Congress and Left Front strongly criticised the disparity in the hike between ministers and MLAs.
They said salaries and allowances of ministers were hiked to more than double, but for MLAs it was only a mere hike of Rs 5,000 per month.
CPI(M) member Sujan Chakraborty announced that Left Front members would not accept the paltry salary hike.
Congress member Nepal Mahato, however, said they would accept the hike, but would protest the disparity.
The House was today adjourned sine die after thanking the Speaker even as Congress and Left Front members skipped it alleging non-cooperation by the Speaker.
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