New Delhi, April 25: The central government is toying with the idea of promulgating an ordinance so that newly elected MLAs in Bihar can draw their salaries and allowances.

The 243 legislators in the state have not been getting their salaries as the Assembly has been kept in suspended animation since the elections resulted in a fractured mandate.

Official sources said an ordinance to amend the 1960 Bihar Legislature Act ? under which MLAs can draw salary only if they have taken oath ? is likely after the budget session of Parliament ends on May 13.

The move would give some respite to Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan as his MLAs have been the most vocal about not forming a government with the support of either the Rashtriya Janata Dal or the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

If the ordinance is promulgated, the beleaguered Union minister can take credit.

Paswan had last week personally taken up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, amid speculation that both the NDA and Laloo Prasad Yadav?s Rashtriya Janata Dal were trying to lure his restive MLAs.

Under the Bihar Legislature (Members? Salaries: Allowances and Pension) Act of 1960, MLAs are not entitled to either their wages or money from the constituency development fund until they have been sworn in.

Section 3 of the Bihar Legislature Act says in the case of a member of a new Assembly, salary will be ?paid only from the date appointed for the first meeting of that Assembly?.

Last month, BJP legislator Rameshwar Prasad petitioned the Supreme Court to strike down this provision. But the apex court rejected his plea on April 4.

Prasad?s argument was based not as much on the denial of salary and other allowances as the lack of development funds.

He argued that as the elected representative of his constituency, Nokah, he has to work for the ?development, welfare and betterment of the public at large?.

?One of the primary functions of an elected MLA is to utilise the funds for the local area development programmes which have been earmarked and if (these) are not utilised, they lapse,? his petition said.

The ?said development funds cannot be stopped?, he argued, just because MLAs have not been able to take oath because of the fractured mandate.

The petition contended that the ?entire state of Bihar would be in a shambles? if development programmes grind to a halt.