Sarpanches to get pending honorarium before Nov 12

The decade-long wait for the honorarium of the sarpanches of the state is set to get over soon, as the Director-cum-Special Secretary of the Rural and Panchayat Department Uma Shankar Gupta has directed the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), District Development and Panchayat Officer and Block Development and Panchayat officers of the state to pay the honorarium of the sarpanches for the period 2013 to 2023 by November 12 latest and submit a compliance report to the head office.The move comes after the Punjab and Haryana High Court took up a petition by the panchayat union and directed the department to clear the dues before the next date of hearing on November 13.

The honorarium — Rs 1,200 per month — of more than 3,000 sarpanches is pending and these are mostly those panchayats which do not have their own source of income.

Aggrieved sarpanches say they have to spend more than Rs 500 on tea and snacks daily as visitors come to them to get their work done. Government officials too ask us to accompany them to villages.

Mohali DDPO Parambeer Kaur said, "Part payments were made to some of the sarpanches in 2016-17. Rest all dues will be cleared before November 12."

The Director of the Rural and Panchayat Department, in a demi official letter dated November 7, has written that the panchayats which have income from their own sources should pay the sarpanches and the sarpanches of the panchayats that do not have any source of income should be paid honorarium from the funds of the panchayat committees and district councils.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party had promised in its manifesto to increase the honorarium of the sarpanches to Rs 20,000 per month and also promised to start giving honorarium to the panches, but it has not been done yet.

Panchayat Union Punjab president Ravinder Singh Rinku Gurne, who filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, said that even to get the honorarium of just Rs 1,200 per month, sarpanches were forced to approach the courts repeatedly.

"The state government should increase the honorarium of the sarpanches to Rs 20,000 and that of panches to Rs 10,000 as per the election promise and immediately start paying tĥem," he said.