Ministers to get daily allowance for attending house sesssions

Kolkata, Nov 29: West Bengal cabinet today decided on a daily allowance to ministers, on par with MLAs, for attending assembly sessions.

Secretariat sources said ministers, who did not get any such allowance earlier for attending the House sessions, will henceforth get a daily allowance of Rs 1,000.

MLAs, who were earlier getting Rs 750 daily for attending the House, will from now on get a daily allowance of Rs 1,000, they said. ''For the ministers, calculation of daily allowance will be made for five days for every day attended.

Their monthly income will increase by Rs 28,000 in addition to their present montly salary of Rs 7,500,'' the sources said. The cabinet also decided that funds under the Rajiv Awas Yojana for the urban poor will be made non-lapsable so that left-over funds for one year can be accumulated in the corpus for next year.

Suitable amendments in the West Bengal Municipal Act will be made for the purpose, the sources said.

PTI