Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced hike in the meeting fees of Gram Panchayat and Block Level Federation functionaries working under the Mission Shakti program of the state. According to a release from the Chief Minister’s Office, the meeting fee or allowance has been hiked by Rs 500. The hike will be applicable retrospectively from October 2023.
While the meeting fee of block-level federations has been hiked from Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500 for secretaries and presidents, other executive members will now get Rs 2,500 as meeting fee. Likewise, the fees of secretaries and presidents of Panchayat-level Federations has also been hiked from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500. The fees for the other executive members has been hiked to Rs 1,500 from Rs 1,000. The decision will benefit more than 126010 Mission Shakti functionaries of the state. The government will incur an additional expenditure of Rs 249.21 crore per annum in this regard.
The release from the CMO says, Mission Shakti has become a large movement in the state and has played an important role in the economic and social empowerment of women. Various village-level and block-level federations have played an important role in this. These federations have a special role to play in implementing the programs of Self-Help Groups.
During the visit of the 5T Chairman Kartik Pandian to various districts for grievance hearing, the members of the Mission Shakti Federations proposed for increase in their fees. After discussing about this, the Chief Minister has decided to increase the meeting fees.
It is worth mentioning here that there are a total of 676 block-level federation presidents and secretaries in the state, while the number of other members is 3042. Similarly, there are 13,588 presidents and Secretaries in Gram Panchayat Level Federations. The number of other members is 1,08,704.