An Association for Democratic Reforms report titled – “Analysis of Income and Profession of Sitting MLAs” stated that the average annual income of MLAs in India is Rs 24.59 lakh per annum while 203 out of Karnataka’s 224 MLAs have the highest average annual income of Rs 111.4 lakh.
ADR, an NGO that works for electoral and political reforms in the country, released the report earlier this week, stating that the affidavits of 941 MLAs did not declare their income and the analysis was done mainly on the annual (self) income of 3,145 sitting MLAs. The report was derived after analysing the affidavits of the MLAs which are available online on the website of Election Commission Of India.
The analysis showed that a total of 711 MLAs from the southern states declared the highest average annual income of Rs 51.99 lakh while 63 MLAs of the Chhattisgarh assembly have the lowest annual average income at Rs 5.4 lakh, followed by Jharkhand’s 72 MLAs with Rs 7.4 lakh.
While the annual income of N Nagaraju of Karnataka is the highest across India at Rs157 crore, Maharashtra’s Mangal Prabhat Lodha comes in second with Rs33 crore a year, the analysis revealed.
In the past 10 years, there has been around 1100% spike in Salaries of Indian MLAs. When compared to other foreign countries Member of the Legislative Assembly, the Indian MLA salary is higher.
The NGO’s findings further showed that out of 3,145 MLAs analysed, 55 (2 per cent) have not given their profession in their affidavit, 771 (25 per cent) declared business as their profession and 758 (24 per cent) said they are agriculturist or farmer. The analysis said a number of 397 (13 per cent) MLAs, who have declared their profession as agriculture and business, have the highest average annual income of Rs 57.81 lakh.
A number of 1,052 (33 per cent) MLAs, declaring their educational qualification to be between 5th to 12th pass, have an average annual income of Rs 31.03 lakh. “At least 1,997 (63 per cent) MLAs, graduate or above, have an average annual income of Rs 20.87 lakh. A number of 139 8th pass MLAs have average annual self-income worth Rs 89.88 lakh, while those who have declared themselves to be illiterate have an average annual self-income of Rs 9.31 lakh.”
Only 258 (8 per cent) MLAs are women, said the analysis. “On an average a male MLA’s annual self-income is Rs 25.85 lakh whereas for a female MLA, it is Rs 10.53 lakh.”
