The Maharashtra government has agreed to pay Rs 50,000 as spectacles allowance to Bombay high court judges
Bengaluru: A few days ago, we had reported on how the Maharashtra government, under CM Uddhav Thackeray, had tweaked rules to buy six luxury cars for its ministers.
Close on the heels, here is another interesting story. The Maharashtra government has agreed to pay Rs 50,000 as spectacles allowance to Bombay high court judges.
According to the Government Resolution (GR) of the states law and judiciary department, the decision covers judges, their spouses and family members dependent on them.
The amount will include recurring expenses too, the July 10 GR signed by legal adviser and joint secretary Yogesh Ameta said.
It is to be noted that the BMC has failed to pay salaries of doctors who had come from Kerala to assist Maharashtra doctors.
As many as 40 doctors had come to Maharashtra. But 15 among them had started returning to Kerala as they did not get their salaries.
A note on purchasing luxury cars
Though the money allotted to purchase a car had been ceiled at Rs 20 lakh, the government, with full knowledge of the CM, had agreed to a proposal to increase the upper limit so as to accommodate the purchases of all the six cars.
The upper limit set was Rs 20 lakh, but as per news reports, the cars (Innova Crysta 2.4 ZX, 7 seaters) were purchased at Rs 22,83,086 from Madhuban Motors Pvt. Ltd., Lower Parel, Mumbai.
The website, which we referred to write this story, had added that the decision to approve the purchase of new vehicles came amidst galloping coronavirus outbreak and a day after Maharashtra Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar claimed that the Maharashtra government will have to borrow money to pay for the salaries of its employees in August.
The Bombay high court currently has 67 sitting judges which translates into an annual expense of Rs 33.5 lakh on the judges' spectacle allowance.
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