Maharashtra civic polls: Directly elected chiefs of municipal councils, nagar panchayats to have voting rights

Ahead of the Maharashtra civic polls the cabinet on Wednesday decided to promulgate an ordinance to amend an Act which will grant membership and voting rights to directly elected presidents of municipal councils and nagar panchayats news agency PTI reportedThe Maharashtra Municipal Councils Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act 1965 will be amended to enable directly elected presidents to become members of their respective municipal bodiesThe Act will also entitle the elected presidents to cast one vote as a member a statement issued by the Chief Ministers Office saidIt also mentions that in the event of a tie during voting the president will exercise a casting vote PTI reportedThis decision taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis aims to recognise the public mandate received by directly elected presidents and to strengthen their role in municipal governanceFurthermore the cabinet also approved the free allocation of one acre of land belonging to the dairy developmentThe statement also said that where a government milkchilling centre is situated it will be handed over to the Dharashiv Municipal Council for the purpose PTI reportedAlso this decision was taken in response to a longstanding demand from public representatives and social organisationsFurthermore the cabinet has also approved the grant of powers to divisional commissioners to regularise the services of 291 nurses who are either working on bonds or retired under the zilla parishad health departments PTI reportedThese nurses were earlier appointed for a fixed period after completing training from government nursing colleges and were subsequently given shortterm appointments based on local requirementsHowever the authority of divisional commissioners to regularise such appointments was withdrawn in 2018 the statement addedUnder the latest decision the services of bonded nurses appointed before April 15 2015 including those currently in service as well as those who have retired will now be regularisedAmong other decisions the cabinet gave the green light to the District Karmayogi Programme 20 and the Sarpanch Samvad Programme to strengthen the functioning of village taluka and districtlevel administration Both the programmes will be implemented through the Mitra organisationDistrict Karmayogi 20District Karmayogi 20 will focus on training officers and staff working at the grassroots including agriculture officers engineers gram sevaks talathis agriculture assistants health workers irrigation inspectors and statistical officersAround 85000 officers and employees across Maharashtra will be trained under the programme to improve service delivery and administrative efficiencyThe initiative will also focus on addressing local issues faced by micro small and medium enterprises MSMEs industrial units and farmerproducer organisations FPOs while improving governmenttobusiness G2B services at the district levelWith inputs from PTI