Odisha Govt Hikes Remuneration Of ULB Functionaries; 6-Fold Jump In Mayors’ Pay

Bhubaneswar: A day after declaring pay hike for panchayati raj representatives, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced hike in the remuneration and allowances of functionaries of urban local bodies (ULBs) in the state.

The Chief Minister announced pay hike for the mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen, vice chairmen, corporators, and councilors of five municipal corporations, 48 municipalities and 68 notified area councils (NACs) in the state.

This increase has been made following the recommendations of the 5th State Finance Commission and amendments in Odisha Municipal Corporation Rules-2004, and Odisha Municipality Rules-1953, an official release said.

While mayors of municipal corporations were earlier receiving Rs 8,000 as remuneration, the amount has been raised to Rs 50,000 per month. Similarly, the monthly remuneration of deputy mayors has been increased from Rs 5000 to Rs 20,000. The municipal council chairperson’s monthly pay has been increased from Rs 1,500 to Rs 15,000, while the remuneration of the deputy chairperson has been increased from Rs 1,200 to Rs 10,000.

Similarly, the CM announced an increase in the monthly remuneration of NAC chairperson from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 and that of deputy chairman from Rs 800 to Rs 7,500.

The corporators of municipal corporations were getting Rs 7,000 per meeting as allowance and the amount has been increased to Rs 2,000. The allowance of councillors of various municipalities and NACs has been increased from Rs 1500 to Rs 5000. Apart from this, the members of the Standing Committee of the Metropolitan Corporation will get a daily allowance of Rs 200 during the meeting.

The Chief Minister has also announced ex-gratia assistance for the elected representatives of ULBs. In case of death, this amount of assistance will be Rs 2 lakh, while in case of total and partial disability, it will be Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively.

The state government will bear an annual expenditure of Rs 4.76 crore following the hike in these amoluments.

Notably, there are 1,696 councilors in municipalities and NACs and 244 corporators in municipal corporations in the state at present.

It may be recalled here that senior IAS officer Vijay Amruta Kulange was removed from the post of commissioner of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently following a reported goof up in making a statement about hike in the emoluments of Mayor, deputy Mayor and corporators.