The Maharashtra cabinet on Friday granted an extension to Balasaheb Thackeray Smruti Matoshree Gram Panchayat Bandhani Yojana, to fund construction of office buildings for smaller gram panchayants. It was cleared by the state government in January 2018 till 2022 and will now run till 2027-28.
Under the scheme, gram panchayats with less than 2,000 population without a building will now get Rs 20 lakh instead of Rs 15 lakh, while gram panchayats with a population of more than 2,000 will get Rs 25 lakh instead of Rs 18 lakh. The scheme was to benefit 4,252 gram panchayats. In the past four years, administrative approval has been given to 1,748 gram panchayats for which Rs 38.13 crore till now have been spent.
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Earlier, the gram panchayats were to put 10 per cent of their own funds for the construction work, which has now been cancelled. More funds, if required, can be made available from other schemes of state and Centre, finance commission fund, district village development fund as well as from MP and MLA fund.
The state cabinet was also informed that advance payment of Rs 965 crore from Pradhan Mantri crop insurance scheme has been made as of now. According to the government’s statement a total of 47.63 lakh applications have been approved with total amount of around Rs 1954 crore. Out of this, distribution of Rs 965 crore has been made.
The crop insurance companies have raised partial objections on claims in nine out of 24 districts, including Beed, Buldhana, Washim, Nandurbar, Dhule, Nasik, Ahmadnagar, Pune and Amaravati. The hearing on those objections is ongoing in Pune and Amaravati, while the process is over in other districts. The companies have not raised any objection in 12 districts.
