The GMC office. A file picture

Sept. 11: The councillors of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation have cut across party lines and struck a unanimous note with their decision to go ahead with a hike in their monthly honorarium.

The decision to implement the 100 per cent hike from next month was taken at a special meeting of all the councillors convened by mayor Dolly Bora at the circuit house last evening.

“The mayor approved the proposal to increase the monthly honorarium of the councillors from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 after the councillors supported the move at yesterday’s meeting,” a GMC source said.

“The existing honorarium of Rs 5,000 per month is inadequate for a councillor to discharge his or her duties as a representative of the people. A councillor generally spends Rs 10,000 a month for conveyance alone, for official purposes like attending office and visiting their respective wards. Considering this the hike is absolutely justified,” former deputy mayor and councillor of ward 7 Dipankar Ghosh said.

The decision of the GMC to implement the hike, notwithstanding opposition from its employees, may lead to a confrontation between the two.

The mayor had held discussions with the leaders of the Guwahati Municipal Karmi Sangha, the apex union of the GMC employees recently, but failed to cut ice with the union leaders.

Describing the hike in the honorarium as unjustified, the workers’ union general secretary Chandan Sarma said the councillors should get the hike only on the basis of their performance, as it was in case of the employees.

“The performance of the councillors is nowhere near satisfactory, particularly as the GMC has failed to supply drinking water to more than half of the city’s population and most of the roads and drains are in a dilapidated condition. Under these circumstances, as the representatives of the people, the councillors have lost their moral right to a pay hike,” Sarma said.

Demanding probity from the councillors, he said they should focus on resolving civic problems faced by the citizens everyday rather than increasing their honorarium.

“We want the intervention of chief minister Tarun Gogoi and Guwahati development minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to put the proposal for honorarium hike in abeyance,” he said.

Sarma said unless the civic amenities in the city and the financial position of the GMC are improved, the proposal to hike the honorarium would not be acceptable to them.

“It doesn’t reflect well on the part of the councillors to increase their pay when the employees are not getting their monthly salaries regularly. Moreover, the GMC employees who have retired after 2002 are yet to get post-retirement benefits like gratuity and Central Provident Fund,” he said.