Mumbai : CM Eknath Shinde has reversed the decisions taken by the Uddhav-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government after 2019. He has reinstated four decisions that were initiated by the Devendra Fadnavis government in 2015-2019. It include restoring voting rights to farmers in APMC mandis, reintroducing pensions to jailed people during the Emergency, and directly electing village heads and city council presidents by the people.
At present the Maharashtra Agriculture Produce and Marketing Act 1963 empowers Gram Panchayat members, members of Agriculture Credit Society and Multi Purpose Co-operative Society to elect the members of APMC. In 2017, the BJP government changed this and gave farmers the right to elect the members and chairperson of the APMC.
Shinde said, we have restored the voting rights of such farmers, who have more than 0.25 acres of land and they have sold their crops thrice in the last 5 years in APMC mandis.
Apart from this, another decision has been taken in the cabinet, those who spent more than a month in jail during the Emergency, they will be given a pension of 10000 rupees. If such people have died, then 5000 rupees will be given to their families. Those who have spent less than 1 month in jail will be given Rs 5000. This decision was brought by the Fadnavis government in 2017. However, Uddhav Sarkar closed it in 2020 saying that the people of RSS are getting the benefit of it.
At the same time, the cabinet has decided to make changes in the Gram Panchayat Act 1958. According to this, there will be direct elections of Sarpanch and Gram Panchayat. CM Eknath Shinde said, the state government has decided to add one more provision in this that the gram panchayat will not be able to move a no-confidence motion against the sarpanch and deputy sarpanch for two years after the election and 6 months before the next election.
Similarly, by amending the Maharashtra Municipal Council, Nagar Panchayat and Industrial Towns Act, 1965, it has also been decided to elect the city council presidents directly from the people. In 2017, the Fadnavis government had decided to hold direct elections for the sarpanch. However, in 2020, the MVA government changed this decision.
