Maharashtra announces Corona-free village contest, winners to get ₹50 lakh

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced “Corona-free village” contest in a bid to encourage implementation of steps to curb the spread of Covid-19 in rural areas

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday announced “Corona-free village” contest in a bid to encourage implementation of steps to curb the spread of Covid-19 in rural areas. The rural development department (RDD) announced that prizes will be given to three village panchayats for doing good work in Covid-19 management in each of the six revenue divisions. The village panchayat that wins the first prize will get ₹50 lakh, second ₹25 lakh and third ₹15 lakh.

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The initiative came a few days after chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s address where he spoke about Covid-free village drive to arrest the spread of Covid-19 in rural areas. Rural development minister Hasan Mushrif said such initiatives will help contain Covid-19 cases in rural hinterlands, which has become a cause of concern for the state government.

“By such initiatives, there will be more awareness about Covid-19 and we will be able to stop it in villages. Everybody from the village must cooperate, and the gram sabha and sarpanch (village head) must take this initiative seriously,” Mushrif said.

He added the competition will go on for a year and the villages will be judged by a committee on 22 parameters set by the department. RDD is expected to issue a government resolution outlining the parameter and other details for the contest soon.

Under this competition, 18 villages will be given prizes, a total amounting to ₹5.4 crore. The minister added the villages that win the contest will get another incentive in the form of additional amount equivalent to the prize money as encouragement which will be utilised for development works in those villages.

In the past, Maharashtra government had launched Clean Village competition during 1999-2004 which had evoked enormous response from villages in the state.