Maha governor yet to give assent to bill on sarpanch election

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari is yet to give his assent to a bill passed by the state legislature 10 days ago allowing election of sarpanch (village head) from among members of gram panchayats, government sources said on Thursday.

According to the sources in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi regime, NCP minister Hasan Mushrif met Koshyari on Wednesday to discuss the issue, but was told that the bill has been sent to the states advocate general to know the latters opinion on it.

"It never happened in the past (in Maharashtra) that the bill passed by both the Houses of the legislature was sent to advocate general for opinion. It will be good if the assent is given soon in view of the coming gram panchayat polls," the sources said.

READ | Drug Menace: Maha Minister Blames Nigerians, Courier Services

Reversing a key decision of the previous BJP government, the Maharashtra legislature on February 25 passed a bill allowing election of sarpanch from among members of the local bodies instead of a popular mandate amid ruckus by BJP members over issues of farmers.

The rule for the direct election of the sarpanch was brought in by the previous BJP-led government in the state in 2017.

In the Lower House, the Maharashtra Village Panchayat (Amendment) Bill 2020 was tabled by Rural Development Mushrif.

The Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress had formed the MVA government last year after the Uddhav Thackeray-led party severed ties with then ally BJP over sharing chief ministerial post.

READ | Fadnavis Dares Maha CM To Have Courage And State Muslim Reservation Is 'unconstitutional'

READ | Maha Spends 1.5L Cr Out Of Rs 4L Cr Income On Salary, Pension: Ajit Pawar