AIZAWL, Dec 11 - An analysis of all the 40 MLAs in Mizoram has found an average increase of 475.84 per cent in their wealth during the last five years.
According to the Aizawl-based corruption watchdog, the People�s Right to Information and Development Society of Mizoram (PRISM), the average increase in Mizoram legislators� wealth during 2008-2013 was 475.84 per cent, compared to the increase in the State per capita income at 94.42 per cent during the same period.
�Being a legislator is more lucrative than any other business,� Prism president Vanlalruata said, while speaking at International Anti-Corruption Day in Aizawl on Friday.
The increase in the MLAs wealth during the last five years was slightly less than that of 2003-2008 period, during which their wealth increased by 662.85 per cent. The increase in the State per capita income during the period was 52.41 per cent.
PRISM said the monthly basic salary and allowances, including constituency, sumptuary, entertainment, family and house rent of the Chief Minister amounts to Rs 95,000. The Speaker is entitled to Rs 90,000, Cabinet Ministers and Leader of Opposition get Rs 88,000, and the Deputy Speaker gets Rs 85,000. The Minister of State, the Deputy Government Chief Whip and the Parliamentary Secretary earn Rs 83,000 and legislators get Rs 65,000.
�The CM, Speaker and Ministers receive free telephone, electricity and water supply, and are exempted from local taxes,� the PRISM president said, adding that legislators are given Rs 6,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 2,500 for telephone, electricity and water charges respectively each month. They can avail a daily allowance of Rs 750 while undertaking a journey inside the State and Rs 1,000 outside the State. They can also avail free travel upto Rs 2 lakh in a year.
The Cabinet Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Ministers of State and Parliamentary Secretaries are provided with expensive cars, drivers, office staff and household peons. All the legislators including Ministers and other leaders holding offices can avail extremely low-interest car loans up to Rs 4 lakh each term. The legislators are entitled to a personal assistant, driver and a household peon while the CM is entitled to nine (eight since last year) household peons and the Speaker six, Ministers can hire four (three since last year), Deputy Speaker four, Ministers of State four (three since last year), and the Parliamentary Secretary four (three since last year), PRISM said.
All MLAs can avail housing loans up to Rs 10 lakh in a term and are also entitled to renovation of residences at a cost of Rs 1 lakh in the first year and Rs 50,000 in the succeeding years.
PRISM also revealed that the total amount of money lost due to corruption in Mizoram during 2014-15 was 10.30 per cent of the GSDP, against the international average of five per cent of GDP.
�All the public money swindled by the government could have done a lot for the upliftment of the poor,� Vanlalruata said.