Maharashtra: Blow to MVA as Shinde-Fadnavis govt reintroduces direct election to presidents of nagar panchayats and parishads

In a blow to the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, the Shinde Fadnavis government on Thursday announced that the presidents of the nagar panchayats and nagar parishads in Maharashtra will be elected directly by the people. The state cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and attended by the Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave its approval to scrap the decision taken by the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in 2020 that presidents of these bodies will be elected by the councillor’s and not directly by the people. Today’s decision comes at a time when the elections to the civic and local bodies are slated to take place in the near future.

CM said that the presidents of nagar panchayats and nagar parishads will be now directly elected, adding that the decision in this regard was taken by the BJP government in 2018 but later cancelled by the MVA government. BJP had benefited a lot as it could increase its presence in nagar panchayats and nagar parishads by outwitting the NCP and Congress.

Further, Shinde announced that the cabinet also approved the direct election of sarpanch of the gram panchayats in the state. The government will thereby scrap the MVA government’s decision which had said that the sarpanch would be elected by the members of the gram panchayats. Fadnavis said that the BJP led government had taken the decision based on the demand by representatives of gram panchayats for direct election of sarpanch. The government will amend the Maharashtra Gram Panchayat Act 1958 to pave the way for the direct election of sarpanch of gram panchayats.

Further, the tenure of the presidents and Vice Presidents of the Zilla parishads and panchayat samitis will be extended for three months by amending section 43 of the Maharashtra Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti Act, 1969.

Amendment to the APMC Act, 1963

The state cabinet also approved providing voting rights to eligible farmers to choose members and chairmen of the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) in their jurisdiction. The previous MVA government had scrapped the decision in this regard taken by the BJP government in 2018. The BJP government had argued that providing voting right to farmers was necessary to make the election process wider, open, transparent, and representative, as the election by the members of gram panchayats, agriculture credit societies, and multipurpose cooperative societies was open to manipulation, political rigging, and opaqueness. APMCs will be more democratically accountable to farmers if they get the voting rights.

The farmers must have land at least up 10 R and above and out of the five year the farmer should have sold agricultural produce to APMCs. The voting right to farmers was implemented after a committee chaired by Director Marketing recommended that it would be beneficial for farmers if direct elections are held.The government will soon promulgate an ordinance and necessary amendments will be made in the APMC Act, 1963 during the upcoming monsoon session of the state legislature.

With today’s decision the Shinde Fadnavis government proposes to checkmate the NCP and Congress which still enjoy their dominance in 300 plus APMCs in the state.