CHANDIGARH, Dec 23: After sarpanchs from 13,040 panchayats protested in Ludhiana on Wednesday over not getting their monthly honorarium since 2013, the state government released Rs 18.76 crore, making up sarpanchs’ honorarium for past nine months.
A senior officer of the rural development and panchyats department said the state government had to release a total of Rs 39.12 crore for payment of pending honorarium to panchayat heads. “It was due to financial constraints during the previous government that honorarium could not be released in time,” said the officer, adding the remaining amount would be released soon.
The state government treasury has released Rs 18.76 crore to banks, which would now transfer the amount into sapanchs’ accounts.
On December 20, sarpanchs gathered in Ludhiana to protest against the state government’s “apathy” towards them and submitted a memorandum to the Ludhiana deputy commissioner. Punjab Panchayat Union president Harminder Singh Mavisaid, “To date, we do not have any information about the release of any amount. Now, we will protest in Sangrur on January 3 and in Gurdaspur on January 5.”
Though the Congress government took over the state’s charge in March, it has also been caught in the vicious circle of debt trap and sarpanchs continue to function without getting honorarium. During the previous SAD-BJP regime, a cess was levied on the sale of liquor for collecting money to be disbursed as honorarium to sarpanchs. Despite this, hardly a few selected sarpanchs were paid honorarium in March 2015 and rest continued to suffer.
Even in December 2015, sarpanchs had threatened of protests unsuccessfully. The panchayat union had alleged that by not releasing honorarium, the state government was promoting corruption in the system.
News Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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