NEW DELHI: Sitting MLAs across the country have an average annual income of Rs 24.59 lakh, with Karnataka topping the charts with its legislative assembly members earning an average of over Rs 1 crore per annum, a study showed on Monday.
On the other hand, Chhattisgarh MLAs earn the lowest with their average annual income coming at Rs 5.4 lakh, as per the latest report of the Association for Democratic Reforms and the National Election Watch.
The report also showed a huge gender disparity among MLAs with the average income of men being more than double that of the women.
It also found that the MLAs who have declared themselves to be illiterate have an average annual self-income of Rs 9.31 lakh. Besides, nearly half of the MLAs have declared their profession as business or agriculture.
The electoral reforms advocacy group said they analysed self-declared affidavits of 3,145 out of 4,086 sitting MLAs across the country. As 941 MLAs have not declared their income, they have not been included in this report, which primarily focuses on the annual self income of the sitting MLAs only.
The report pegged the average annual income of 3,145 sitting MLAs at Rs 24.59 lakh, with the 711 MLAs in Southern region having the highest average annual income of Rs 51.99 lakh.
The 614 MLAs in Eastern region have the lowest average annual income worth Rs 8.53 lakh. (AGENCIES)
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