Honorarium hiked for panchayat leaders

Bhubaneswar: The state government, Thursday, gave its stamp of approval for hiking the allowance of elected members of Panchayati Raj Institutions in the state.

The Panchayati Raj department Thursday issued a notification to this effect detailing the amount of hike for each level of elected representatives.

The department said that the matter was raised earlier and was pending for government’s approval. The government announced that the new provision will come into effect from April 1, 2020.

“The question of revision of honorarium to the elected representatives of Panchayati Raj Institutions like Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad was under active consideration of government for quite some time,” the notification said.

According to the notification, all the representatives will get paid at a revised rate except for the ward members. The ward members were not getting any honorarium from the government earlier.

The government claimed that the existing rates were fixed long before and needed revision in the context of present price index, rising cost of living and mobility. The government said that the order was concurred in by the Finance department and the resolution would be published in official Gazette.
The Odisha Panchayat Samiti Rules, 1975 regulates the payment of allowance to the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Members of the Samiti. Similarly Rule-11 of Odisha Gram Panchayat Rules, 2014 prescribes the rate at which Sarpanch, Naib Sarpanch and ward member shall get daily allowance and sitting fees. So also Section -10 of Odisha Zilla parishad

Act, 1991 prescribes honorarium for President / Vice president of ZPs.

“After careful consideration, the government has been pleased to decide that in supersession of all previous orders, resolutions, rules and amendments of the relevant rules, the elected representatives of PRIs shall be paid revised daily allowances, sitting fee and honorarium with effect from April 1, 2020,” the notification said.

The honorarium is in addition to the daily allowance and sitting fees these officials get from the government. All the six members of the GPs and Panchayat Samitis get Rs 40 each every day while all the three category of officials from ZPs get Rs 80 as daily allowance.

Similarly, all the six members of GPs and Panchayat Samitis get Rs 200 as sitting fees each while all three officials of the ZPs get Rs 220 sitting fees each.

REVISED HONORARIUM

* Honorarium is in addition to daily allowance/sitting fees