Hakim announces hike in honorarium of Mayor, Dy Mayor, MMiCs & councillors

Kolkata: The honorarium of the Mayor, the Deputy Mayor and the councillors of Kolkata Municipal Corporation is all set to go up. The increase will be effective from August 1.

"We have proposed a hike in the honorarium of Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Members, Mayor-in-Council (MMiCs), chairperson and the councillors of KMC," said Mayor Firhad Hakim, soon after the end of the monthly meeting at KMC on Tuesday. The honorarium of the Mayor is going up from Rs 5,500 to 11,500, with that of Deputy Mayor and chairperson from Rs 5,250 to 11,250, that of MMiCs and Leader of Opposition from Rs 4,700 to 10,700 and the councillors from Rs 4,000 to 10,000.

A veteran councillor in the civic body said that the last time when the honorarium of councillors had witnessed a rise was during the mayorship of Subrata Mukherjee. Mukherjee, who is presently the minister for the Panchayat and Rural Development department, was the Mayor from 2000 to 2005.

The councillors, irrespective of their party affiliation, expressed their happiness regarding the initiative. Congress councillor Prakash Upadhyay, who had flagged the issue of the increase in councillors' honorarium on more than one occasion during monthly meetings for the last few years, thanked the Mayor on Tuesday.

It may be mentioned that on July 5, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced a hike in the daily allowances of ministers and MLAs in the state at the state Assembly. Ministers are now entitled to a daily allowance of Rs 3,000 and MLAs Rs 2,000, a rise from Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 respectively.