The monthly expenditure on the personal salaries of MPs was 1.976 million rupees.
Following a circular from the federal government, the benefits of personal secretaries for members of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly have been reduced. The Provincial Assembly Secretariat has stopped paying salaries to the personal secretaries of provincial MPs since Asoj.
The cabinet meeting of the interim government formed after the Gen-G movement on October 25 had decided to abolish the facility of personal secretaries for the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker and Chairman of the National Assembly, provincial chiefs, members of parliament and other political officials, except for ministers of the Government of Nepal and provincial governments, in order to maintain austerity.
After receiving the decision, the provincial government had issued a circular to the secretariat on October 25 to implement the decision. Accordingly, the remuneration of 57 personal secretaries of 50 provincial assembly members, including the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, has been stopped, said Shashidhar Subedi, information officer of the secretariat. ‘The remuneration of the personal secretaries of 8 ministers is paid by the government. There is a provision for 3 each for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker and 2 for the leader of the opposition party,’ he said, ‘The remuneration of all personal secretaries has been stopped since October.’
The Gandaki Provincial Assembly has 60 members. 8 of them are currently ministers. The then Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Drinking Water, Phanindra Devkota, had resigned, citing the suppression of the Gen-G movement. Until his resignation, i.e. until Bhadra, his personal family members were not counted in the parliament records as they received services from the ministry.
In addition, there were 59 members in the parliament as the post of Rajiv Gurung (Deepak Manange), elected from Manang 'Kh', was vacant. Thus, the personal family members of 50 MPs received their salaries from the Provincial Assembly Secretariat.
Information Officer Subedi said that 19 lakh 76 thousand rupees were being spent monthly on the salaries of the MPs' personal family members.
