The elected representatives of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC), not lagging behind the legislators of the State, on Sunday raised a demand to hike their salary by eight-fold to the existing salary of Rs 6,000 a month.
The elected representatives of both ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition Congress in the BMC delayed scheduled meeting of the Mayor-in-Council by over three hours demanding a hike in honorarium and salary.
Not surprisingly both Congress and BJP Corporators held prolonged meetings to introduce the move in the budget session of the civic body.
Average salary of BMC Corporator is around Rs 6,000. Senior elected members of the civic body gain a few more benefits. For attending meetings of the BMC, Corporators are paid about Rs 1,500 per meeting. Corporators are looking over a eightfold hike.
Sources said that BMC mayor Alok Sharma has assured the Corporators of a hike in honorarium provided it is approved by the state government.
Meanwhile, senior BJP Corporator and Mayor in Council (MiC) member Krishna Mohan Soni tabled proposal of hike of wages in the ongoing MiC meet. As per the proposal the salary of Corporators should be raised to Rs 50,000 per month, salary of BMC chairman to Rs 90, 000 a month and the salary of mayor be hiked to Rs 1,00, 000.00 a month.
Demand of BMC Corporators to hike their perks, follows a similar proposal by MP MlAs. The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet on March 30, 2016 approved a hike in salaries for MlAs. With the new hike, salaries of MlAs will go up to Rs 1.10 lakh per month as opposed to the Rs 71,000 they earn currently. Besides, the salary of the chief minister will also be hiked from the current Rs 1.43 lakh per month to Rs 2 lakh a month.
BMC budget presented
in Saturday had a deficit of Rs 68 crore.