Maha Vikas Aghadi government has cancelled the previous BJP-led government's decision to elect the municipal council president directly from the people. Instead, the state cabinet has approved the election of municipal council president by the councillors. FPJ broke the story today.
MVA government wants to checkmate BJP with today's decision as the alliance partners Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress were of the view that BJP benefited the most due to the election of the municipal president directly from the people.
The BJP-led government had taken the decision in May 2016. BJP had won a record 1,109 seats in the four-phase elections in 191 Municipal Councils and 19 Nagar Panchayats of Maharashtra held in January 2017.
The cabinet also decided to request the Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to promulgate an ordinance as the amendment will be made to the Maharashtra Municipal Council, Nagar Panchayat and Industrial Township Rules 1965. The bill will be table in the ensuing budget session of the state legislature slated to begin February 24.
Meanwhile, the state cabinet also scrapped the previous BJP-led government's decision to give voting rights to eligible farmers to choose members and chairmen of the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs) in their jurisdiction. This was introduced in March 2017 to reduce the dominance on Congress and NCP in APMCs.
The state cabinet decided to revert to pre-March 2017 position whereby the members of APMC and various market panels that function under the APMC will be elected by the members of gram panchayats, agriculture credit societies, and multi-purpose co-operative societies.
