Corporators want pay hike

hyderabad: cutting across party lines, municipal corporation of hyderabad (mch) corporators have decided to pass a resolution and request the state government to enhance honorarium to at least rs 3,500-rs 4,000 per month. as per existing norms, each corporator gets rs 1,000 per month and rs 100 a day for council sittings. apart from these, they do not receive any other financial benefits.with nominal remuneration and almost no executive powers, most corporators are reportedly disappointed over the meagre earnings. several corporators have taken up the issue of enhanced monthly remuneration with the deputy mayor and standing committee chairman. the standing committee is likely to discuss the issue at its next meeting scheduled for tuesday. however, the committee has to request the government for the enhanced honorarium. speaking to the times of india, senior bjp corporator and deputy mayor g subhash chander said many corporators cannot afford to tour their divisions or approach the mch head office as they are financially not sound. the enhanced monthly honorarium would be a motivating factor for elected representatives. “the mch budget is more than rs 500 crore. the total monthly honorarium of rs 4,000 to each corporator works out to about rs 60 lakh a year, which is not a big amount,� he stated. standing committee chairman m madhu said several corporators complained to him that they were not even getting benefits which a class iv employee in the corporation enjoys. though the elected representatives have earlier asked for reimbursement of telephone bills and other benefits, the proposals were rejected by the officials. “merely listing more demands is not correct. however, salary is an important issue which all ward committee chairpersons have agreed to do something about,� he said. according to madhu, they would pass a resolution and send it to the government for its approval. mch commissioner chitra ramachandran said she would forward such a proposal to the government, provided the standing committee takes a decision on the proposals.