TNI Bureau: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced an increase in the remuneration and allowances of the mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen, vice chairmen, corporators, and councilors of five Municipal Corporations, 48 municipal councils and 68 notified area councils (NACs) of Odisha.

Patnaik made the announcement following the recommendations of the Fifth State Finance Commission and amendments in Odisha Municipal Corporation Rules-2004, and Odisha Municipal Rules-1953.

As per the CM’s announcement, the mayors of Municipal Corporations were earlier receiving Rs 8,000 as a bonus, this has been revised to Rs 50,000 per month. Similarly, the monthly remuneration of deputy mayors has been increased to Rs 20,000 from Rs 5000.

Likewise, the municipal council chairman’s salary has been hiked to Rs 15,000 from Rs 1,500 while the remuneration of the chairman has been increased from Rs 1,200 to Rs 10,000. He also announced an increase in the monthly gratuity of the chairman from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 and the monthly gratuity of the deputy chairman from Rs 800 to Rs 7,500.

The corporators of the Municipal Corporations were getting Rs 7,000 per meeting and now it has been increased to Rs 2,000. The allowance of councilors of various municipal councils and NACs has been increased from Rs 1500 to Rs 5000. Apart from this, the members of the Standing Committee of the Metropolitan Corporation will get a daily allowance of Rs 2000 during the meeting.

Patnaik also announced the introduction of ex-gratia assistance to the elected representatives of the urban areas. In case of death, this amount of assistance is kept at Rs 2 lakh, while in case of total and partial disability, it is kept at Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively.

It is worth noting that now 1,696 councilors and 244 corporators are serving in all the municipalities and NACs in the state.