Plans afoot to hike corporators’ pay
After legislators in the state assembly received a hike in their salaries, corporators in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are also craving for a pay rise. Plans are afoot to table the proposal, passed four years ago, which has called for a three-fold hike in the salaries of corporators. However, civic activists have slammed the move, saying that it would amount to a loot of public money.
The present honorarium earned by corporators for expenses incurred is '10,000 per month. But they want Rs 50,000 per month for the same. The then standing committee chairman Rahul Shewale had tabled the proposal to this effect, which was sent by then mayor Sunil Prabhu to the state government for approval. However, it has been pending since then.
Earlier this month, the legislators enacted a legislation that saw their salaries surge by as much as three times over. An MLA/MLC, who was previously paid Rs 70,000 a month, will now take home a revised pay and allowance of '1.82 lakh.
With the legislators managing to get the pay hike, corporators are demanding that their salaries, too, be increased. “The present honorarium amount is proving to be inadequate due to an increase in correspondence, phone calls and transport for public works,” said a senior corporator on condition of anonymity.
However, civic activists have slammed the move. Nikhil Desai from Agni said, “Accountability is an important factor when it comes to every raise. But in the BMC, corporators do not have any such responsibility. The city has been besieged with several problems — such as potholes, water-logging and bad roads — but irrespective of this, the corporators want a pay hike.”
Godfrey Pimenta from Watchdog Foundation said, “They are the servants of the public. When they decided to become corporators, they should have envisaged that the job is for the betterment of the people, not their own. Instead, they are interested only in their own benefits.”