The highest earning official in the Prime Minister’s Office earns more than the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, information provided under the Right to Information Act has revealed.
Bhaskar Khulbe, an additional secretary in the PMO, gets a monthly remuneration of Rs 2,014,50 which is highest among all the officials. His salary includes a Housing Rent Allowance (HRA) of Rs 23,700. Khulbe was appointed as Secretary to PM last week.
On the other hand, Prime Minister’s monthly salary stands at Rs 1,60,00, including all allowances.
Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Additional Principal Secretary PK Mishra all draw the same salary of Rs 1,62,500 per month plus pension since all three of them are retired civil servants.
The figures which are posted on the website of the PM's Office as part of voluntary disclosure under the Right To Information Act list the salaries of PMO officials as on June 1, 2016.
Many joint secretaries in the PMO get a salary of around Rs. 1.7 lakh. Tarun Bajaj is the highest paid among them with a salary of Rs. 1,77,750. Joint Secretary Anurag Jain is paid Rs 176250 and AK Sharma takes home Rs 173250, as per the records provided by the PMO.
The lowest paid employee of the PMO is a “multitasking staff” Gopal Lal Kalasua who gets a salary of around Rs 17,573 per month.
Disclosure of the salaries of PMO employees are now a norm as it was also made public when the Manmohan Singh government was in power.
