Mamata and other ministers in Bengal get a hike in salary

Kolkata, 5 July (US):The West Bengal Legislative Assembly today unanimously passed a resolution to substantially increase the monthly salary and other emoluments of all of the ministers including the Chief minister, and other members of the house.

Announcing the decision  in the state Assembly here this afternoon, Chief minister Mamata Banerjee informed the members that following the passage of the bill in this connection the monthly salary and other emoluments of every state Cabinet minister would now increased to Rs 1.12  lakh each from around Rs 81,000 each since 2017,while the same for all Ministers of State had now become Rs 1,11 lakh each from about Rs 79,000 earlier.

Similarly,the Chief minister who used to receive Rs 86,301 as her monthly salary since 2017, after it was gradually increased from only Rs 8,000 per month when she was first elected as the Chief minister way back in 2011,would now receive a total amount of Rs 1.17 lakh as her monthly salary and other emoluments.

All other members of the August house would now receive altogether Rs 81,870 as their monthly salary and other emoluments as per the new rule, she said adding that for attending the Assembly session each of the 294 members of the state Legislative Assembly including the ministers would now receivean additional  Rs 1,000 every day of the session, up from only Rs 350 earlier.

Stating that the state Finance department had already cleared the government proposal for allocating additional fund for this purpose, the Chief minister said this was for the third time in last nine years the salary and other emoluments of her government was hiked.

But still by all yardsticks they were much lower than their counterparts in most of the other states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telenganba and Andhra Pradesh among others, she said and read out  the comparative figures.

It may be recalled that during the 34 long years of Left Front rule in Bengal,the average total income of all ministers and other members of the house was around only Rs 20,000 each  per month.