Mumbai: In a major move, the Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra has restored the four decisions that were initiated by the Devendra Fadnavis government in 2015-2019 and were scrapped by the Uddhav-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government after 2019. The four decisions of the Uddhav government that have been changed by Eknath Shinde include restoration of voting rights of farmers in APMC mandis, resumption of pension to those jailed due to emergency and direct election of gram pradhans and municipal council presidents by the people. At present, the Maharashtra Agriculture Produce and Marketing Act, 1963, has the right to elect members of the Gram Panchayat Members, Agriculture Credit Society and Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society to elect members of APMC. In 2017, the BJP government had changed this and gave farmers the right to elect members and chairpersons of the APMC. But in 2020, the Uddhav government had cancelled this change. The government said that there are not enough funds on the APMC to hold such an election.
Eknath Shinde said, ''we have restored the right to vote of such farmers who have more than 0.25 acres of land and they have sold their crops in APMC mandis 3 times in the last 5 years. It is being said that this change has been taken to weaken the hold of NCP and Congress in cooperative societies and local bodies.'' Apart from this, another decision has been taken in the cabinet, those who spent more than a month in jail during the Emergency will be given a pension of Rs 10,000. 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 its benefits.
Apart from this, the cabinet has decided to make changes in the Gram Panchayat Act 1958. According to this, there will be direct election of Sarpanch and Gram Panchayat. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said the state government has decided to add one more provision 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 six months before the next election. Similarly, by bringing amendments in the Maharashtra Municipal Council, Nagar Panchayat and Industrial Town Act, 1965, it has also been decided to elect the Presidents of the Municipal Council directly from the people. In 2017, the Fadnavis government decided to hold direct elections for the sarpanch. Although, In 2020, the MVA government changed this decision. It is said that the candidates supported by the ruling party get benefits in the elections. Fadnavis made it clear that direct elections are held in all major states. This gives equal opportunity to all the candidates. He said, in indirect elections, eligible candidates are sidelined.
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