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Cash-strapped Chandigarh MC planning to hike councillors’ pay
From current ₹15,000 per month, Chandigarh MC may raise the municipal councillors’ monthly honorarium by over two-fold to ₹34,000
Already finding itself pushed to the corner amid fund crunch, the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) is somehow working out a proposal to increase its councillors’ monthly honorarium.
Currently set at ₹15,000 per month, after the MC House’s nod, councillors’ pay can be taken up to ₹34,000 a month — an over two-fold hike, said those familiar with the development.
In addition to this, the civic body’s finance panel, for the first time, has already approved ₹5,000 per month for each councillor as “entertainment expense” to meet the expenditure of serving “tea, coffee and refreshments” to their guests.
While councillors have for long been complaining of “inadequate” honorarium, the decision to propose hike in honorarium and approval for the “entertainment expense” came during the finance and contract committee (F&CC) meeting on Friday, held under the chairmanship of mayor Anup Gupta.
MC commissioner Anindita Mitra and other committee members, including councillors Dalip Sharma, Gurpreet Singh, Harpreet Kaur Babla, Prem Lata and Neha, and other senior MC officers were also present.
At the meeting, the civic body had tabled an agenda to provide entertainment expense to the district development and panchayat officer (a group-A officer who is on deputation with UT administration but posted in MC), on the lines of that given to other MC officers.
Discussions on the agenda ultimately led to an increase in entertainment expense for every officer, mayor, deputy mayor, senior deputy mayor and MC commissioner.
The councillors present in the committee then also demanded entertainment expense for councillors and hike in the monthly honorarium, citing frequent public dealings.
Mayor Anup Gupta said, “The councillors have been spending money from their pockets or from monthly honorarium to offer refreshments to their guests. The entertainment expense for mayor and commissioner has been increased from existing ₹12,000 to ₹15,000 per month, while that for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor has been raised from ₹5,000 to ₹7,000 per month.”
“The entertainment expense for MC officers has been increased from ₹2,000- ₹3,000 to ₹4,500,” he added.
“We will now propose an agenda to increase the honorarium of councillors in the next General House meeting in the wake of increased expenses and long-pending demand. The hike, however, has not been decided as of now,” the mayor said.
At present, each councillor gets an estimated ₹15,000 honorarium, along with ₹2,000 as telephone allowance per month.
Mayor’s monthly honorarium stands at ₹45,000 (including ₹15,000 that councillors get), whereas senior deputy mayor gets ₹40,000 and deputy mayor ₹35,000.
When Chandigarh MC was established in 1996, councillors’ monthly honorarium was ₹1,000 per month and that of the mayor ₹2,000 per month.
‘Hike in honorarium need of the hour’
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Prem Lata said, “People often visit councillors’ offices for public works and offering them tea or refreshments is courtesy. Councillors spend money from their own pockets to meet expenses for petrol, paper works, refreshments and other welfare-related works.”
Congress councillor Gurpreet Singh Gabi said, “Even Class-4 employees get more salary from DC rates as compared to councillors. Councillors work round the clock and ₹15,000 per month is inadequate for meeting expenses.”
Notably, just a month ago, the civic body had halted new tenders for development works after it had ring-fenced ₹282 crore from its funds for city’s waste management on the orders of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Following the orders, the mayor had requested UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit for more funds so that city’s development would not suffer and finally on September 28, the UT administration released ₹25 crore of grant-in-aid ahead of schedule to allow city’s development works to continue.
