Uttarakhand assembly passes bill giving cashless treatment facility to MLAs

Gairsain (Uttarakhand): The Uttarakhand Assembly on Friday passed a legislation to increase the salary and allowances of MLAs and give them cashless treatment in leading hospitals.

Six more bills, including one that seeks to recover damages for property vandalism, were passed during the three-day monsoon session which concluded on Friday.

The assembly passed a supplementary budget of Rs 5,013.05 crore which was tabled in the house on Thursday.

Most of the bills were passed after a walkout by opposition members who were not satisfied with steps taken by the state government to compensate the people affected by natural disasters across the state.

According to the provisions of the Uttarakhand State Legislative Assembly Miscellaneous Amendment Bill, MLAs have been brought under the ambit of cashless treatment through golden cards. The bill will come into effect retrospectively from April 1, 2022.

All big state hospitals, as well as Delhi's Fortis hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre, and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences will be empanelled for cashless treatment under the law.

Railway coupons worth Rs 30,000 per month will now be paid to MLAs in cash as per provisions of the bill.

Their telephone allowance has been increased from Rs 2,000, as also the driver allowance, which has gone up from Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000, state finance minister Premchand Aggarwal told reporters outside the assembly in Gairsain.

The bill was brought on the basis of the recommendations of an in-house committee, he said, adding, not all of the recommendations made their way into the bill.

The supplementary budget, the first for the ongoing fiscal, was allocated with a view to achieving the annual budget targets and reducing the burden of loans on the state, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said.

"The aim is to give the coming generations a strong economy by increasing revenue earnings and taking development to remote areas," he said.

On the Public Property Damages Recovery Bill, he said the idea of it came after the riots in Banbhoolpura area of Haldwani in February this year.

The bill makes provisions for the recovery of damages done to public property during riots from the rioters, he said.