Karnataka Budget: Bonanza for panchayat bosses, CM gives them a big pay hike
Bengaluru: All presidents, vice presidents and members of zilla panchayats, taluk panchayats and gram panchayats will draw higher salaries soon as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has acceded to their demand for a hike and increased the allocation for rural development and panchayat raj department to Rs 14061 crores in the budget presented on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, has increased the honorarium of zilla panchayat members from Rs.3000 to Rs. 4000, while that of taluk panchayat members has been hiked from Rs 1500 to Rs 3000, and gram panchayat members will draw Rs 1000 as against Rs 500 earlier.
The honorarium of taluk panchayat president has been increased from Rs 4500 to Rs 6000, while that of vice president has been hiked from Rs 3000 to Rs 4000. Gram panchayat presidents will draw Rs 3000 as against an earlier honorarium of Rs 1000, and vice presidents, Rs 2000 as against Rs 600 earlier.
Phase IV of Namma Grama Namma Rasthe scheme will be taken up this year, with an allocation of Rs. 1765 crores for rural roads of 4386 km while Rs. 5 crore has been granted for setting up bio fuel generation units with 1000 litres per day capacity and central bio fuel quality test laboratory.
Besides, the district panchayat development grant will be increased from Rs. 2 crores to Rs 4 crores, with the Chief Minister setting a target for creation of 12 crore man days under Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme in 2017-18.
The CM has proposed an allocation of Rs. 20 crores for Namma Grama Namma Yojana (GPDP). Under this scheme, 22.5 lakh activities will be taken up for next five years and 3.9 lakh activities will be taken up during this year.
In addition, Rs. 2,200 crore will be provided for rural water supply scheme, with emphasis on multi village drinking water scheme. To ensure an open defecation-free state, Rs 1585 crores will be provided and incentives offered to rural families for construction of individual toilets.
