MARGAO
Members of the Aquem-Baixo panchayat led by Sarpanch Siddesh Bhagat has slammed the government decision to hike the monthly honorarium of sarpanchas and panchayats by 50 per cent, demanding that the government should either provide a descent honorarium or add the amount of proposed hike to the pension of the MLAs.
The sarpanch further demanded that the government immediately stop the pension paid to the MLAs and Ministers, while underlining the need for to go through the assets of MLAs and ministers and stop the pension.
Addressing the media, Bhagat said the proposed 50 per cent hike in the honorarium for the sarpanchas, deputy sarpanchas and panch members will not mean much for these grassroots level elected representatives. “Right now, a sarpanch draws a monthly honorarium of Rs 4000. Add 50 per cent of the proposed hike and the sarpanch will end up drawing Rs 6000. Comparatively, an MLA is paid around Rs 1.7 lakh in additional to other incentives such as car petrol, medical facilities etc. The sarpanchas and panchas should either be paid Rs 12,000 and Rs 8,000 respectively or the proposed hike should be added to the salary of the MLAs,” he said.
Bhagat further pointed out there’s no system in place at the Salcete Block Development Office to prepare estimates for the projects mooted by the panchayat bodies. “Salcete has 30 panchayats, but there are only three junior engineers to prepare estimates for the projects. There’s inordinate delay in the preparation of the estimates for want of manpower. We need at least three more JEs, one engineer for one constituency,” he said, while pointing out that absence of an assistant engineer to grant technical sanction at the BDO office has only caused delays in the technical sanctions for many a project.
He pointed out that panchayats will be able to utilise the funds sanctioned under the 14th Finance Commission only if the JEs are empowered to give technical sanction for projects up to Rs two lakh.
