Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Wednesday announced that all sarpanches in the state will receive a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 from August 15.Making the announcement through a Facebook post, the CM said the decision had been taken to strengthen grassroots democracy and recognise the services rendered by village heads. “The panchayat is the first step of democracy. Sarpanches work day and night for the development and welfare of their villages and deserve a salary for their efforts,” he said.The Chief Minister added that the move would help sarpanches support their families better while enabling them to work more effectively for village development. “If villages progress, Punjab will progress,” he posted.The announcement comes at a time when the CM has been holding ‘Sarpanch Milni’ programmes in Bathinda district over the past two days to interact with elected village representatives and discuss rural development issues.Earlier, on the ‘Rashtriya Panchayati Raj Diwas’ on April 24 last year, the state government had increased the honorarium of sarpanches from Rs 1,200 to Rs 2,000 per month.