MC: Issue of increasing honorarium hangs fire

The issue of increasing honorarium being paid to the Mayor, senior deputy mayor, deputy mayor as well as the councillors continues to hang fire several months after a proposal was sent to the UT Administration. The issue was once again taken up in the co-ordination committee meeting between the UT Administration and the Municipal Corporation held recently.

At present the Mayor gets an honorarium of Rs 15,000 per month, the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor get Rs 6,000 each. The rest of the councillors are paid Rs 5,000 each. For attending meetings of the sub-committees Rs 200 each is paid.

The councillors have time and again demanded that the honorarium be revised. A proposal was prepared in November last year after Punjab revised the honorarium in its civic bodies.

Since Chandigarh follows the Punjab Municipal Act, it was suggested that on a similar pattern, the honorarium be increased. According to the proposal, the Mayor should be paid Rs 20,000, while the honorarium of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor be increased to Rs 16,500 and Rs 12,500 respectively.

Deputy Mayor Satish Kainth says that action on the proposal is awaited several months after it was prepared. "The honorarium paid to the councillors for attending meetings is a pittance. Just Rs 200 is paid. It has not been revised for years. There is a need to take some action," he said.

During the co-ordination committee meeting held on Friday, Mayor Subhash Chawla raised the issue, asking for the demand to be fulfilled. Another proposal about giving the nominated councillors a ward development fund on the lines of elected councillors was also discussed. The issue of increasing the honorarium was raised two years ago as well.

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