Tamil Nadu MLAs salary hiked to Rs 1.05 lakh

CHENNAI: The salaries of Tamil Nadu MLAs has been increased from Rs 55,000 to Rs 1.05 lakh per month, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced in the assembly on Wednesday.The chief minister also announced that MLA Local Area Development Fund would be increased from Rs 2 crore to 2.5 crore.Allowances for the Chief Minister, Ministers, the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition and the Government Chief Whip were also increased with (retrospective) effect from July 1 this year.Pension for former MLAs and members of the now defunct legislative council will be increased to Rs 20,000 from the present Rs 12,000.The chief minister also hiked the monthly pension for journalists to Rs 10,000 from the current Rs 8,000 and allowance for the Assembly Watch and Ward staff as well.Giving the break up of MLA's pay hike, he said their salary would be increased from Rs 8,000 to Rs 30,000.Similarly, compensatory allowance will be Rs 10,000 from Rs 7,000 while telephone allowance has been revised to Rs 7,500 from Rs 5,000.The constituency allowance goes up to Rs 25,000 from Rs 10,000 and consolidated allowance to Rs 5,000 from Rs 2,500.Vehicle allowance will be upwardly revised to Rs 25,000 from 20,000. Postal allowance will continue to be same at Rs 2,500.As regards the Chief Minister, Ministers and Speaker, their Compensatory allowance will now be Rs 15,000 and expenditure allowance Rs 10,000 and constituency allowance Rs 25,000.The Deputy Speaker, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Government Whip will get compensatory and constituency allowances on par with Ministers, their expenditure allowance will be slightly lower at Rs 7,500.Family pension for kin of late MLAs will be hiked by Rs 10,000. They get 50 per cent of the pension drawn by pensioner-legislators.The annual medical allowance (for retired MLAs) will be increased to Rs 25,000 from the present Rs 12,000.After the chief minister’s announcement, most MLAs appeared very enthused. But DMK legislators retrained themselves from celebrating."Each and every MLA must be happy inside. But due to party restrictions, they may not be able to express their joy," remarked Speaker P Dhanapal.(With inputs from PTI)