After a long wait,the Centre has finally approved the allowances for elected members of cantonments and fixed the monthly honorarium of members in the range of Rs 2,000-Rs 5,000. Though the members of cantonments,including three in Pune,have been pressing for the honorarium for the past two years elections to the cantonments in Pune were held in May 2008 the payment fixed for members is being seen as too meagre. This even as all the three cantonments of Pune,Dehu Road and Khadki are class I cantonments and the members are entitled for the highest honorarium. As per the notification issued in July by the Union Defence Ministry,which is still open for public objections,for class I cantonments the allowances fixed each month for the vice-president and members is Rs 5,000 and Rs 4,000 respectively. Besides they are entitled for a monthly conveyance of Rs 1,000 and Rs 250 as telephone allowance. For the class II category cantonments,the monthly allowances for the vice-president and members are Rs 4,000 and 3,000 respectively and they are also entitled for a conveyance allowance of Rs 800 and monthly telephone allowance of Rs 250. For the vice-presidents and members of class III cantonments,the monthly allowances are Rs 3,000 and Rs 2,000 besides a conveyance allowance of Rs 600 and telephone allowance of Rs 250. And for the class IV category cantonments,the monthly allowances are Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 respectively for the vice-president and members while the conveyance and telephone allowances are Rs 400 and 250 respectively. Dehu Road Cantonment Board spokesman NM Mahajan said,The notification was issued in July and we have sought objections from people on it. They have been told that they can directly file the objections with the director,land and cantonments,Ministry of Defence,New Delhi. We were not paying anything to the members since the board was elected in 2008. He said the board would take a decision on allowances and later get the money approved from the Southern Command. We have also written to the Principal Director,Defence Estates,that besides the allowance members should also be paid at least Rs 500 for attending the meetings of the board and its different committees. However,members have expressed dissatisfaction over the meagre payment fixed for them. This is nothing but insult. This will only discourage literate persons from representing the people on cantonment boards. The honorarium is even less than the salary of a peon, Pune Cantonment Board member Aarti Mahajan said. Dehu Road Cantonment Board vice-chairman Sanjay Pinjan said,We will accept the allowance that has been fixed by the government and later consult the members of other cantonments to express our displeasure over meagre payments.
