Each of the three interlocutors in Jammu and Kashmir appointed by the government will get Rs 1.50 lakh a month and each is allowed to take an executive assistant with an overall remuneration not exceeding Rs 40,000 a month.

The home ministry disclosed this in reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query by activist S C Agrawal on the October 13 appointment of journalist Dileep Padgaonkar, academician Radha Kumar and economist M M Ansari, a former information commissioner in the Central Information Commission

The RTI reply says the interlocutors will enjoy status of the state guest while visiting Jammu and Kashmir. They will be provided three rooms in the Vigyan Bhawan (one each as their common office, conference room and for staff) and "until the office accommodation is provided, they can meet at the India International Centre and the charges will be reimbursed by the MHA."

"In case of M.M. Ansari, (former) Information Commissioner, the remuneration would be minus existing lump-sum pay/pension (after retirement)," says the reply.

As regards their perks and facilities, the reply says they will get secretarial assistance of one or two persons as per need from the ministry and "necessary office equipment and computers including furniture shall be lent by MHA."

The ministry will reimburse the cost of travel outside Delhi in "executive class." Travel expenses incurred within the national capital for official purposes, as also expenses on meetings in Delhi and J&K will also be reimbursed.

Though the interlocutors get much more than the fixed Rs 80,000 salary of the Cabinet Secretary who is the first civil servant in India, sources said they are only on contract for a year and as such the ministry fixed their remuneration as decided early this year by the union cabinet for those engaged on contract from outside.

The cabinet took the decision to pay Rs 1.50 a month when Captain Raghu Raman(46) of Mahindra and Mahindra was appointed as the CEO of the National Intelligence Grid (NatGrid). It was, however, his salary because of which he was denied the rank of the secretary of the Government of India.