CMC council meeting cancelled amid Din

CUTTACK: The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) council meeting was cancelled without sitting on Friday amidst uproarious scenes by corporators who demanded immediate provisioning of salary and other benefits for them.The corporators cutting across partylines locked the Biswanath Pundit council hall and staged a sit-in denying entry to the mayor, deputy mayor, commissioner and other officials.They demanded that an honorarium of Rs 5,000 be paid to them every month along with increase of the same for mayor and deputy mayor from Rs 6,000 and Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 and Rs 7,000 respectively.Submitting a memorandum to the chief minister through commissioner, CMC, they have also sought raising of the sitting allowances provided to them. The sitting allowance for council meetings should be enhanced from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 and for Standing Committee meetings from Rs 200 to Rs 500. Additional benefits like local conveyance and TA should be extended on a par with Grade A officers of the Government, corporator Pradip Behera said.With only one council meeting a month and uncertain Standing Committee meetings, the remuneration for the corporators, who are engaged full-time in the job, is very low. While the government has increased the salary of MLAs three-fold, it should accord some remuneration to the members of the local bodies, Behera said.