New Delhi, Aug 3 (IANS): The Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday approved salary hike of the members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) after getting approval from the Centre.

With the approval from the cabinet, Delhi MLAs will now get a salary of Rs 30,000 per month.

As per a provision of the Bill cleared by the Delhi Assembly in 2015, the basic salary of legislators will increase from the current Rs 12,000 to Rs 50,000.

However, the AAP government said that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has scuttled the proposal and restricted it and capped the salary of the MLAs to only Rs 30,000. They will be getting a total of Rs 90,000 per month including Rs 30,000 basic salary and other allowances.

The restriction imposed by the Centre has forced Delhi's MLAs to be amongst the lowest paid among all states in the country.

"The salary of Delhi's MLAs hasn't increased since 2011 and the Delhi Government had requested the MHA that it should be at par with MLAs of other states, however the MHA refused to do so," said Chief Minister's Office (CMO) in a statement.

The Delhi Government had proposed a salary of Rs 54,000 for the MLAs.

"Now the salary plus allowances of the MLAs of Delhi has been restricted by the MHA to Rs 90,000," it said.

Proposal for an increase in salary and allowances of Delhi MLAs was pending with the MHA for the last 5 years.

The cabinet has also approved salaries and other allowances of Ministers of Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and MLAs under the Legislative Assembly of Delhi (Amendment) Bills, 2021.

"After Cabinet approval, the proposal and draft bills will be sent for MHA's approval before being placed in the Delhi Assembly," CMO said.