Extend devp board terms, 30 prominent citizens write to CM

Nagpur: After Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government failed to extend tenure of three

statutory boards

in state, about 30 noted personalities from the region rushed a letter to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray requesting him to take immediate steps in this regard.

Prominent citizens, including

Vikas Amte

,

MP Vikas Mahatme

,

Dr Vedprakash Mishra

, VED chief Shivkumar Rao, former VSDB members Sanjay Khadakkar and Kapil Chandrayan, economist Vinayak Deshpande and others have told the CM they were not interested in any politics over the issue but just want tenure of statutory boards extended with a view to continue development of backwards regions of the state.

The five-year tenure of these three boards meant for backward regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada and rest of Maharashtra (ROM) came to an end on April 30. Despite two regular meetings in April, the state cabinet led by the CM failed to make any recommendation for extending the tenure citing Covid-19 crisis. This was reported by TOI on May 1.

According to these citizens, the boards were constituted for removal of massive backlog in the backward regions and from time to time, they had suggested measures to do so. “The boards acted as watchdog and infomred the government whenever these regions were meted out injustice in terms of funds allocation all these years. The members on these boards had submitted important reports after conducting thorough studies to the governor through which actual figures of the backlog came to fore in the backward areas,” the letter mentioned.

The letter added that if tenure of these boards were not extended, it would send wrong signal to the people of these regions that the government was suppressing their voice. “It would also mean the government is trying to close a statutory medium through which the grievances of citizens from these areas used to reach the government. Even in future, if any injustice is done with Vidarbha and Marathwada, there would no medium to raise the voice. It will ultimately lead to increase in their backlog,” the letter stated.

All about statutory boards

* President accepted resolution of Maharashtra legislature on March 9, 1994

* He entrusted responsibility to governor to form three boards for 5 years

* Governor issued orders on April 30, 1994, to form Vid, Marathwada & ROM boards

* Rules & Guidelines issued for boards’ composition on August 5, 1994

* Duties of chairman and members, their functions and funds allocation for devp finalized

* It also included arrangements for education, training and employment services

* Governor’s orders took care of points raised in Nagpur pact