EDMC councillors hopeful AAP may sanction their salaries

Councillors of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation may have something to cheer as the civic agency plans to give them Rs 50,000 per month as salary starting financial year 2014-15. The civic agency has made a provision in this regard in the Budget 2014-15 on Wednesday.

 

The civic agency is hopeful that the Aam Aadmi Party government may sanction funds to make this long pending demand a reality.

“When MPs and MLAs are paid, why can’t councillors get some money for performing their duties. We have been demanding this for a long time, but nothing happened. Now the new AAP government may give councillors the much needed relief,” Leader of House of East Corporation, B B Tyagi told Deccan Herald.

At present, none of the councillors get salary. They are only paid allowances — Rs 300 per meeting and maximum up to Rs 3,000 per month, Rs 2,000 per month for their landline phone and Rs 1,500 per month for mobile.

The corporation also plans to increase the allowance for meetings from Rs 300 to Rs 1,000 in the next financial year. Though the civic body had proposed the same in the last year’s Budget as well.

“Every councillor has this complaint that he spends his entire day in performing welfare functions, but he doesn’t get any salary or adequate allowances,” said Tyagi in a special meeting of East Corporation.

There is no new tax and no increase in existing taxes in the Budget for the next financial year. A new medical college will be set up by the corporation within Swami Dayanand Hospital in Dilshad Garden in the next financial year. A total of Rs 2 crore has been allocated for the local area development, which will be given to each councillor to spend on priority works.

The civic agency will open two kitchens – one each in Shahdara North Zone and Shahdara South Zone – to provide food to economically weak people at Rs 10 per plate.“It’s a pilot project and if it’s successful we will open more such kitchens, Tyagi said. “We will take foodgrain under the city government’s Below Poverty Line Yojana,” he added.