Stipend hike for civic volunteers draws ire
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Monday announced a 45% hike in the monthly stipend of civic volunteers, a move that triggered questions from opposition parties.
Leaders of the BJP, the Congress and the Left Front called it “a reward for obeying the diktats of the Trinamool Congress leaders” during the recent panchayat elections that produced a landslide for the ruling party.
This year, for the first time, civic volunteers were deployed for maintaining security at the polling booths on May 14. Out of 1.57 lakh security personnel, 81,000 (or 52%) were civic volunteers. There are 1.23 lakh civic volunteers in West Bengal.
Addressing an award distribution ceremony on Monday, Banerjee said that the civic volunteers are paid a monthly stipend of ~5,500, which will be hiked to ~8,000 from October 1. “We will try our best to train them properly so that their positions can be upgraded to constable level.”
An officer of the state finance department said on the condition of anonymity that the annual payout for the stipend to civic volunteers at present is around ~812 crore. “After the 45% hike, the payout will rise to ~1,180 crore.”
The deployment of these civic volunteers, who help the traffic police on the streets and are not allowed to carry any firearm, came under intense scrutiny and set off controversy in the run-up to the panchayat elections.
BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said the timing of the chief minister’s decision raised doubts.
“This hike appears to be a consolation prize for the tolerance the civic volunteers displayed in the face of widespread violence that the TMC leaders unleashed on the polling day. Otherwise, the work pressure these volunteers go through, their payment should be much higher,” Sinha said.
Congress MLA and leader of opposition in Bengal assembly, Abdul Mannan, too, described the announcement as a gimmick. “On the one hand, she is using these helpless civic volunteers for her own political benefit without paying them their legitimate rights of ESI and PF. On the other hand, she makes the announcement at an award function to prove how generous she is.”
CPI(M) legislator Sujan Chakraborty said, “The chief minister’s original commitment was ~11,000 per month (to the volunteers). She kept them under political pressure before the rural polls. Now, after her mission is accomplished, she is announcing a paltry hike,” he claimed.
At the function on Monday, singer Asha Bhosle, Bengali film superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee and justice (retd) Shyamal Kumar Sen, among others, were conferred the ‘Banga Bibhushan’, the highest civilian award instituted by the state.
Politics is a demanding profession, which requires the practitioner to be alert all the times. While most politicians try to do that, they also occasionally let their guard down and relax.
In Karnataka, there are three politicians whose electoral stamina is legendary: Deve Gowda of the JD(S), BS Yeddyurappa (in pic) of the BJP and the late S Bangarappa of the Congress. As if to attest to that, a day after resigning as the chief minister for the third time, 75-year-old BS Yeddyurappa has hit the road again.
He attended the funeral of a supporter who died unable to bear shock of his leader’s loss, dropped into another funeral, of a seer of a Lingayat mutt, and has been meeting supporters. This, even as some younger politicians are planning holidays abroad after the swearing in of the new government.
KOLKATA:West