Pay panel scales will hit amenities

The economic scenario for most of the municipal councils was grim after the Government’s decision. Only a handful of municipal councils can be said to be financially sound.

Paying the revised scales to about one lakh municipal workers in the State would mean an additional recurring expenditure of over Rs 150 crore for the councils together. The amount will be over Rs 10 crore for municipal councils in Ahmednagar district. The Ahmednagar Municipal Council alone will have to cough up about Rs 4 crore extra.

Except the employees of a few municipal councils like Rahuri and Deolali Pravara in Ahmednagar district and Ichalkaranji in Kolhapur district, almost all council employees usually get their salaries irregularly, sources said.

The councils will have to shoulder a major financial burden on account of dearness allowance and other perks, although they get matching grants towards basic pay of the employees and a part of dearness allowances from the State Government. `A’ class municipal councils pay 20 per cent part of dearness allowance from their own kitty while the `B’ class councils pay 15 per cent. The `C’ class councils get cent per cent grant.

Establishment costs of municipal councils are as high as about half their revenue. This will go up by another 10 or 20 per cent and eventually cut into the funds for development works in the already ill-served towns, the sources said.

A delegation of municipal council members had called on Chief Minister Manohar Joshi in Mumbai a couple of months back requesting him to take them into confidence before reaching any decision. The CM had agreed.

Council members across the State are now in a mood to demand salary grants for full amounts on the lines of the pay structure for the zilla parishads, the sources said.