Maharashtra govt to tweak rules to elect 3 candidates per civic ward, except BMC

BMC office. File Pic

Ahead of crucial civic elections in Maharashtra, the state Cabinet comprising ministers of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress on Wednesday cleared a proposal to open wards to elect three contestants except for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The proposal submitted by the state Urban Development Department was cleared in the cabinet meeting.

"Except BMC, the rest of municipal corporations will have three candidates in each ward. The proposal is cleared by the cabinet today. The rules will be amended accordingly," Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde told reporters.

Responding to a query, he said this arrangement will benefit the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress.

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The elections to the 227-member Mumbai civic body is due early next year.

The cabinet also cleared a proposal to set up a sugar museum at the Pune-headquartered Sugar Commissionerate and approved Rs 40 crore for this purpose.

In another decision, the cabinet approved a residential training course for candidates belonging to minority communities. It said 30 per cent of seats will be reserved for women.

The cooperative societies will be given a further extension to conduct their annual general meetings (AGMs) till March 31. The earlier extensions were given due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cabinet also decided to issue a guarantee to the Rs 600 crore loan sought by the Maharashtra Cooperative Cotton Producers' Corporation. The fund was raised to make payments to farmers who sold cotton in 2020-21.

The cabinet sanctioned Rs 1,008.96 crore revised administrative approval for the Arjuna medium-scale irrigation project located in Rajapur tehsil in the Ratnagiri district. The project is estimated to irrigate 6,171 hectares of land under agriculture.

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