As the festive season approaches,it is the municipal body elected members who are set to receive a Diwali bonanza after the Punjab government decided to raise the salaries of all councillors,mayors,senior deputy and deputy mayors across the state. The salary of councillors has been increased from Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 a month while their phone allowance has been increased from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 per month. Deputy mayors will now get Rs 12,500 a month from the previous Rs 10,000,while the salary of senior deputy mayors has been increased to Rs 16,000 a month from the previous Rs 12,000. Mayors will now take home Rs 20,000 a month from the previous Rs 15,000. While the agenda for the salary hike was sent by the House more than a year ago,it has finally been approved just before Diwali. While a majority of the councillors have welcomed the decision,Congress councillor Raju Thaper thought otherwise. It does not matter much with few thousands raise in the salary of councillors. This will add expenditure worth crores of rupees to the state government. We all are well off and instead this initiative should have been passed on to the class four employees who get paid only Rs 3,500 a month. They do real hard work, Thaper said. The councillor reportedly only draws Rs 1 as salary and distributes the rest to sweepers and other workers of his area. Thaper also urged local bodies minister Tikshan Sud to increase salary of class four workers. Cong councillors complain of graft Ludhiana: Accusing clerks in the Municipal corporation office of demanding bribes from contractors,a group of Congress councillors Jasbir Chadha,Sanjay Talwar,Rakesh Prashar and a few others on Tuesday met the Corporation commissioner A K Sinha over the issue. The councillors alleged that a clerk on Tuesday took Rs 8,000 as listing fee from a contractor but produced a slip for only Rs 4,000. The group alleged that the clerk had stated that the remaining money was the share of higher authorities. They urged the commissioner to take action against the concerned clerk.
