In a major sop to the elected representatives of the panchayati raj institutions ahead of assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Wednesday, announced an increase in the monthly honorarium given to village heads, block heads and district panchayat chairpersons, and an increase in allowances of members for attending meetings of zila panchayat, kshetra panchayat and gram panchayat.
The chief minister also announced the increase in the administrative and financial powers of the panchayats. The government has also increased the financial, administrative and technical powers of gram panchayat for implementation of projects
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made this announcement while addressing the panchayat representatives of the state at the Uttar Pradesh Gram Utkarsh Samaroh here on Wednesday.
The monthly honorarium of village pradhan has been increased from Rs 3,500 to Rs. 5,000 per month. For block pramukh, the amount has been hiked from Rs 9,800 to Rs 11,300 per month. The hike for the chairperson of district panchayat will be from Rs 14,000 to Rs 15,500 per month. For the members of district panchayats the amount per sitting has been hiked from Rs 1,000 to Rs.1, 500 in a year, with a cap of six sittings.
The kshetra panchayat member or block development committee members will now get Rs 1,000 per meeting, up from Rs 500 earlier, in a year. There was no provision of honorarium for the members of gram panchayat. Now they will get Rs 100 per meeting subject to a maximum of 12 meetings in a year.
The amount of honorarium will be distributed separately at the state level and the balance amount of the State Finance Commission will be distributed between gram panchayat, kshetra panchayat and district panchayat. The amount of honorarium will be released to the panchayats as per the requirement.
The state government has also increased the financial, administrative and technical powers of gram panchayats for implementation of projects. The existing limit of Rs 2 lakh per work has been increased to Rs 5 lakh.
For district panchayats Rs 10 lakh limit has been raised to Rs 25 lakh.
In addition to the nominated engineer of the development block, in gram panchayats project report/estimate would be made by junior engineer of Public Works Department, Housing Development Board, Development Authority, Irrigation department, Rural Engineering department, Minor Irrigation department, Mandi Parishad, district panchayat, and junior engineer or assistant engineer of Jal Nigam working in the district. Secretaries will be posted in geographically adjacent gram panchayats. For this about 15,000 clusters have been formed in the entire state.
In the eventuality of death while holding the office of panchayat representatives, Rs 10 lakh will be given to the dependents of gram pradhan, kshetra panchayat pramukh and chairperson of zila panchayats, Rs 5 lakh to the dependents of members of zila panchayat, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh to the dependents of members of kshetra panchayat and gram panchayat, respectively.
Yogi Adityanath said, “With the power of ‘triple engine’ -- the Centre, the state and the village panchayats -- together in full force can boost the development pace in UP and help in making the state the number one economy."
The chief minister urged the panchayat representatives to maintain a healthy competition in development works, according to the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and insisted on making efforts to make ‘Smart Villages’ on the lines of 'Smart City'. The state government would reward the gram panchayats for doing so, he said.
On this occasion, the chief minister inaugurated 42,478 gram panchayat buildings and 58,189 village secretariats and panchayat portals. Also, out of 356 selected for the award for remarkable work, five village heads were honoured.