Gram panchayats whose terms have ended to get administrators

A decision has been taken to appoint appropriate individuals as administrators in gram panchayats on the advice of guardian ministers in the local bodies whose terms have already ended or will end by December-end this year, the statement quoted Mushrif as saying. The minister said the administrators should be from the jurisdiction of the respective gram panchayats.

A decision has been taken to appoint administrators on advice of guardian ministers in gram panchayats whose terms have already ended or will expire in December, Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif said on Wednesday. According to an official statement here, Mushrif said the administrators should be from the category (like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women, general) for which the sarpanch post was reserved.

The opposition BJP has opposed the move, saying political activists should not be appointed as administrators as doing so will be against democratic traditions. The terms of 1,566 gram panchayats in 19 districts of the state ended between April and June this year. The terms of another 12,668 gram panchayats will end between July and December.

Elections to these gram panchayats have been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. A decision has been taken to appoint appropriate individuals as administrators in gram panchayats on the advice of guardian ministers in the local bodies whose terms have already ended or will end by December-end this year, the statement quoted Mushrif as saying.

The minister said the administrators should be from the jurisdiction of the respective gram panchayats. He said appointments of government officials as administrators in gram panchayats whose term is already over will be cancelled as they will be needed for COVID-19-related works.

Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis, however, demanded that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray withdraw the decision, saying political activists should not be appointed as administrators. The decision of appointing political activists as administrators will lead to trampling of democratic traditions...you (Thackeray) should intervene in time and withdraw the decision, the BJP leader said in a letter to the chief minister.