J & K Govt. approves Bill to enhance legislators medical allowance, additional pension

A new initiative has been taken by the State government of Jammu and Kashmir. The initiative has been made in the form of amendments to the Pension Bills 2018 for State Legislature members. The initiative was officially taken after the recommendations were made by the state government in the Raj Bhavan.

Implementations details

As per the sources, the new amendments were officially announced by the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir state – N. N. Vohra. The announcements were made by the Governor on 6^th April 2018 after approval from the cabinet and Raj Bhavan for amendments.

Key Features – (Amendments made)

As per the new recommendations, the Bill has been amended to offer the state’s ex-legislatures with much improved pension amount and allowances as compared to what was offered earlier.
As per the new recommendations it is obvious that the Bill has been passed that included the clause for enhancing the Medical allowances that are paid to the ex-legislatures of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Under the new recommendations that have been included in he new bill, the ex-legislatures would now onwards be paid a medical allowance amount equivalent to Rs 10,000 for every month. Earlier the ex-legislatures were offered with medical allowances of Rs 5000 monthly only.
Apart from this the new Bill also states it very clearly that the ex-legislatures will be offered with a pension amount as per the new amendments made in it, which will be equivalent to Rs 2000 every month. As per the earlier Bill the pension amounts paid was only equivalent to Rs 1000 monthly.
The state government has also stated that for above mentioned recommendations the state government will have to incur additional expense of Rs 30,86,000 annually for meeting the requirements of Pension amounts and Medical allowances.

The queries raised by the members at the Raj Bhavan only after the observations were made in the CAGs report submitted earlier. The reports highlighted the increased indebtedness of hundred percent in the state of Jammu and Kashmir as compared to last eight years.