Centre rejects 300% pay hike for Delhi MLAs

NEW DELHI: The Centre has nixed a demand from Delhi MLAs for a sharp 300 per cent salary hike.

The Union government sent back the proposal saying a pay revision isn't due in Delhi until 2012 and the proposed conveyance allowances are way over the top for a small state like Delhi.

Law and justice minister Mangatram Singhal confirmed that the Centre had indeed shot down the move.''The Centre has said a revision is not due until 2012. We will see how the matter can be sorted out. Inflation doesn't come in five-year cycles.''

Had the proposal gone through, Delhi MLAs would have drawn between Rs 80,000 and Rs 90,000 a month as against the present Rs 32,000.

The plan that wanted MLAs' basic pay to be doubled from Rs 6,000 to Rs 12,000 raised the hackles of the home ministry, sources said. The Centre also put its foot down on a move to give MLAs Rs 7 lakh in interest-free car loans against the present Rs 5 lakh at 5% interest.

Among the spiked moves was one for 300 litres of petrol or diesel as conveyance allowance. The home ministry felt this was way too high for a state just 1,500-odd sq km in area and situated in the national capital.

The Centre's no has embarrassed the state government. Singhal, finance minister A K Walia and Congress chief whip in the assembly – author of the report that called for the raise – held strategy sessions.

Though MLAs wouldn't say anything on record on the issue, off record they complained that the objections were not tenable as Rs 12,000 was a ''paltry amount'', less than a fourth of an MP's basic pay.