HYDERABAD: The Government on Saturday announced a monthly honorarium of Rs.750 for Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency (MPTC) members from April this year.

Addressing at a press conference here, Panchayat Raj Minister J. C. Diwakar Reddy said the honorarium would be paid to the 16,133 MPTC members after allotting funds in the budget for the 2007-08 fiscal. The Government is now paying an honorarium of Rs. 600 each to sarpanches and Rs. 1,000 to mandal presidents.

Earlier, APCC president K. Keshava Rao and the Minister had held a series of meetings with MPTC representatives to thrash out a solution to their problems.

The Minister said the new decision would cost the State exchequer Rs. 14 crores annually. The AP MPTCs Association later said it would call off its agitation partially by dropping its move to hold relay hunger strikes, dharna outside Collector's offices and boycott mandal parishad meetings. Its president Y. B. Rajendra Prasad said the Minister had accepted only 15 out of 39 demands and rejected major demands, including sanction of Rs. 4 lakh development fund for each MPTC member. Mr. Diwakar Reddy said the decision to pay honorarium was taken by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Finance Minister K. Rosaiah. Although there was no provision for such payment, the Government had conceded the demand on humanitarian grounds. Among the demands conceded by the Government was the constitution of standing committee at the mandal-level on the lines of the zilla parishad.

The Minister stated that orders would be issued shortly to authorise them to sign applications for pensions.

One MPTC member would be nominated to the agriculture market committee in the area. Identity cards would be issued to them and training programmes conducted. The Panchayat Raj Chamber would be established here. By conceding these demands, the powers of the sarpanches or mandal presidents would not be affected, Mr. Reddy said.

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