Govt to focus on heritage structures

Conservation of public heritage buildings is his priority, Jayant Patil, Minister for Rural Development and the guardian minister of the island city has said.

Conservation of public heritage buildings is his priority, Jayant Patil, Minister for Rural Development and the guardian minister of the island city has said.

HT Image

“Right now, the open roof of the Central Library is being redone. It was in a very bad state,” Patil told journalists at Mantralaya on Thursday. “We have replaced the dilapidated parts with material similar to the old one.”

He added that a plot has been identified near Ghatkopar to shift a part of the library to because it has lakhs of books and cannot accommodate so many of them.

Patil said the government has spruced up the exteriors of other public heritage buildings including the Science Institute and the Fort secretariat.

Encouraging rural Maharashtra

The state government’s rural development department will on Friday felicitate three zilla parishads, three panchayat samitis and an equal number of gram panchayats for exemplary work under the Yashwant Panchayat Raj Campaign.

The campaign is in its fifth year. These bodies are being awarded in recognition of their work to improve governance, provide better schemes and recover taxes among other things.

The rural development department is also formulating a programme for ‘eco villages’.

The government will help villages that have shown promise in state programmes like sanitation, cleanliness and making villages dispute-free.

Villages will be assisted with planning drainage disposal, providing basic civic amenities, sewage disposal and water supply. The proposal, which is pending with Finance Minister Sunil Tatkare, may come up in the state Legislature’s budget session that begins on March 18.