Sops for panchayats: hike in honararium, increased funds

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday announced a hike in the honorarium given to panchayat representatives – from gram pradhans to zila panchayat chairpersons.

Addressing the “Gram Panchayat Sammelan” in Lucknow, the chief minister sought the support of gram panchayats to boost further growth of the state.

Referring to the BJP governments both in UP and at the Centre as “double-engine government”, the chief minister said, “While the development of UP has received a boost by the “double-engine government”, it would get a further boost if the village-level government also joins hand to ensure that first place for Uttar Pradesh in the country.”

He said the monthly honorarium of gram pradhans has been increased from Rs 3,500 to Rs 5000, for kshetra panchayat chiefs, it has been increased from Rs 9,800 to Rs 11,300, whereas for zila panchayat chairpersons, it has been increased from Rs 14,000 to Rs 15,500.

Also, the government has decided to extend the financial cap of the projects undertaken by panchayats on its own from up to Rs 2 lakh to up to Rs 5 lakh. For zila panchayats, the cap has been increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh, the CM said, assuring that there would not be any dearth of funds for them to use for development work.

To expedite the work on development projects undertaken by the panchayats, the chief minister said that the state government has decided to allow availing services of empaneled engineers along with engineers of other departments like that of PWD, Irrigation, etc for planning the projects.

A separate gram panchayat fund will be set up which would be utilised to give financial assistance to the dependents of panchayat chiefs and members in case of their death, said the CM.

“In case of death of gram pradhan, head of kshetra panchayat or chairman of zila panchayat, there will be a provision for payment of Rs 10 lakh to their dependents, wherein for the death of members of gram panchayat, kshetra panchayat and zila panchayat, there will be a provision to pay their dependents, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, respectively,” the government said.

The government has also decided to make NREGA payments through the “digital signature” of gram pradhan to speed up the process.