“No supporting staff has been provided to the present governor Urjit Patel at his residence. Two cars and two drivers have been provided,” RBI said in a reply to a Right to Information query.
The central bank was asked to provide details of remuneration given to former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and incumbent Patel. For October — the first full month Patel was in office as governor — Patel got Rs 2.09 lakh as his salary, the same amount drawn by Rajan in August. Rajan demitted office on September 4, and was given Rs 27,933 as remuneration for four days.
Rajan assumed the charge as RBI governor from September 5, 2013, at a monthly salary of Rs 1.69 lakh. His salary was revised to Rs 1.78 lakh and Rs 1.87 lakh, respectively, during 2014 and March 2015. His salary was hiked to Rs 2.09 lakh from Rs 2.04 lakh in January this year, the RTI reply said.
Rajan was provided with three cars and four drivers. “One caretaker and nine maintenance attendants were posted as supporting staff in the bungalow provided by the bank to the former Governor Raghuram Rajan at Mumbai,” RBI said. The Centre has recently declined to share details on appointment of Patel and other candidates shortlisted for the top post in the entral bank saying these are “Cabinet papers” and cannot be made public.
Patel was on August 20 named as RBI's Governor to succeed Rajan.