In a rare act of unity among the political parties, the Gujarat Assembly on September 19, 2018, unanimously passed a Bill proposing to hike their salaries by at least Rs. 45,000 a month with retrospective effect from February this year.
Accordingly, the monthly salary of the legislators will be increased to Rs. 1.16 lakh from the existing Rs. 70,727, a rise of about 64 percent, while those of the Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Leader of Opposition will go up to Rs. 1.32 lakh from Rs. 86,000, an increase of about 54 percent.
Minister of State for Home and Parliamentary Affairs Pradeepsinh Jadeja, who introduced the Salaries and Allowances of Members, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly, Ministers and Leader of Opposition Laws (Amendment) Bill 2018, in the House, justified the hike stating that the salaries of lawmakers in the other states were much more than those in Gujarat where the last increase came 13 years ago in 2005.
Congress legislator Niranjan Patel supporting the salary revision said that "what is wrong in that? When everybody's salaries have been raised, why should there be a problem if our pay is hiked? We too have to look after our children and run our homes."
The salaries of lawmakers in the states of Uttarakhand, Telangana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra were Rs. 2.91 lakh, Rs. 2.50 lakh, Rs. 2.25 lakh and Rs. 2.13 lakh, respectively.
