MC proposes increase in councillors’ honorarium

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 30

The cash-starved Municipal Corporation has proposed hike in honorarium for the councillors, who currently draw Rs 15,000 per month. The proposal will be part of the agenda for the next general House meeting, which is expected to be held in the first week of October.

Already, the Finance and Contract Committee, in its meeting yesterday, okayed Rs 5,000 per month for each councillor as ‘entertainment expense’ for the expenses of serving ‘tea/coffee and refreshments’ to their guests.

The civic body had, in the F&CC meeting, tabled an agenda to provide entertainment expense to district development and panchayat officer, a ‘group A’ officer who is on deputation with the UT Administration but posted in the MC, as provided to other MC officials.

The discussions on the agenda ultimately led to increase in entertainment expense for every officer, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and the MC Commissioner.

During the discussions, the councillors present in the committee also demanded entertainment expense for themselves and a hike in their monthly honorarium, citing frequent public dealings.

Mayor Anup Gupta said, “We are going to bring the agenda to increase the existing honorarium of councillors. They will decide the increase percentage.”

At present, each councillor gets Rs 15,000 as honorarium plus Rs 2,000 as telephone allowance per month. As per sources, the proposal can be made to increase the honorarium to Rs 34,000.

The Mayor’s monthly honorarium is Rs 45,000, including 15,000 constituency allowance, while the Senior Deputy Mayor gets Rs 40,000 and the Deputy Mayor Rs 35,000.