Amendment to Village Panchayat Act passed in state legislature

Elections to 1,507 village panchayats slated for March 29 to be held as per amended Act

Amidst slogan shouting by opposition members, the bill to further amend the Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act to elect the sarpanch of a panchayat by elected members instead of a direct election by voters was passed in both the houses of the state legislature. The cabinet had approved the amendment last month, but Governor BS Koshyari had refused to sign the promulgation of ordinance and had asked the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to table the bill in the budget session. With the passage of the bill, the provisions will be applicable in the elections to the 1,570 village panchayats announced yesterday by the state election commission. The election will be held on March 29 and counting on March 30.

Minister of Rural Development Hasan Mushrif told FPJ, ''Due to the amendment, the sarpanch of a panchayat will be elected by the elected members from amongst themselves. The amendment aims to increase mutual accountability and understanding amongst sarpanch and members.'' He informed that the department of rural development will soon send out a communication to the state election commission with an appeal to hold the ensuing sarpanch election as per the amendment act.

The MVA government had decided to scrap the BJP-led government's decision on the direct election of the sarpanch of a panchayat by the voters at the general election of the village panchayat. MVA partners NCP and Congress, in particular, were aggressive to amend the BJP-led government's decision, as they had brought to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's attention that it was done to check their dominance in village panchayats across the state. In view of the amendment, the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance partners are set to jointly checkmate BJP in the coming elections to the 1,570 village panchayats.

The state election commission will cancel the direct election of sarpanch, as the bill has been passed before the commencement of nomination on March 6.

The Fadnavis cabinet had, on July 3, 2017, decided to amend the respective clauses of Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act of 1958 to facilitate election of sarpanch directly from among the people of the village. BJP had gained substantially to consolidate its position and get their nominee elected directly from the voters as sarpanch of village panchayat.

BJP requests Guv not to give assent

During the meeting with Koshyari, the BJP delegation also objected to the MVA introducing and passing a bill that reverses an earlier decision under which people directly elected the village sarpanch.

Stressing the bill was not in accordance with the law, Fadnavis said the delegation requested the Governor to "not give assent to anything that is not in line with the law".