Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal on Monday announced to increase honorarium of newly-elected sarpanches and panches.
The sarpanches would now get Rs3000 instead of Rs2000 given earlier whereas panches would now get Rs1000 instead of Rs600 earlier.
last week, the State Government had revised the honorarium being given to members, vice-chairmen and chairmen of panchayat samitis and zila parishads in the State.
The Chief Minister on Monday administered oath to sarpanches and panches in Rohtak and said that the first meeting of all panchayats would be held on February 24.
He said that Rs210 crore would be given away to the panchayats elected unanimously. He said that grant of Rs50,000 would be given to unanimously-elected panch of the village, Rsfive lakh to sarpanch and Rs11 lakh to the panchayat.
The State Government has made arrangements to ensure systematic functioning of the newly-elected panchayats. These included at least four meetings of gram sabhas in a year in which 200 to 300 voters of small villages and more than 500 voters of big villages would be present, said he.
Manohar lal said that an 11-member committee would be constituted to supervise the functioning of the panchayats so as to conduct social audit of works being done by the panchayats.
While urging them to ensure optimum use of funds for development works, he said that seven times more works can be undertaken with the same budget.
He said that the people of Haryana had been divided on the basis of region, caste and section. However, now we are forging ahead with the ideology of ‘Haryana Ek-Haryanvi Ek’.
We should be competing with other states instead of fighting amongst ourselves. We all should work together to make the best State, he added.
Congratulating the 56 per cent unanimously-elected representatives, the Chief Minister said that this is a major achievement. He also gave slogan ‘Goan Ek-Gaonwasi Ek’ to the sarpanches.
Talking about the ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ programme, the Chief Minister urged the sarpanches to come forward for this social cause and contribute towards making it a success.
While referring to the power sector, he said that efforts should be made to eliminate losses to the tune of Rs29,000 crore being faced by the State Government in power sector.
There would be no hike in power tariff in the state during the next three years, and in case there is a decline in losses, power tariffs may also be reduced, added the Chief Minister.
Speaking on the occasion, Development and Panchayats Minister OP Dhankar said that the recently-concluded elections to the panchayati raj institutions have connected the villages. He said that women were elected to 480 seats, more than the 33 per cent seats reserved for them in these institutions.