Bill passed to raise pension, travel allowance of former legislators

The Chhattisgarh Assembly on Wednesday passed an amendment bill that proposed to increase the pension and travel allowance of former legislators.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ravindra Choubey had tabled the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly Members Salary, Allowance and Pension (Amendment) Bill 2023 on Monday, which was taken up for discussion on Wednesday.
That bill also proposes to provide telephone and orderly allowances to former MLAs. It was passed with a voice vote.
According to the bill, the pension of former MLAs will be increased from Rs 35,000 to Rs 58,300.
Apart from this, every former legislator will also be entitled to get an additional pension of Rs 1,000 per month for every one year after his/her first tenure of membership (excess tenure more than five years), the bill stated.
As per the bill, each incumbent member will be entitled to get an allowance of Rs 10 lakh per year for railway/air travel instead of the existing Rs 8 lakh per year. Similarly, this allowance will be increased from Rs 4 lakh per year to Rs 5 lakh per year for former MLAs, it said.
Besides this, former MLAs will be entitled to get telephone allowance and orderly allowance of Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively, it stated.